News

Atlas-garden generates power

Published on
February 8, 2017

Plant-e, the WUR spin-off company of Wageningen University & Research, has placed a panel with information about the garden that can be lit using power from plants. This was published on 3 February, on the Resource website.

Plants convert carbon dioxide and water into sugars and oxygen. The plants use those sugars as nourishment and building material. However, nothing is perfectly efficient. Excess material reaches the soil through the roots and soil bacteria digest that waste matter. Plant-e collects the electrons that are released in this process and bundles them. In theory, this is a perfect organic battery.

Plant-e has been working on power from plants for a few years. They have test setups spread throughout the country that power LEDs and tiny lamps using plant power. But the campus, the cradle of plant power, was missing among these locations. With the placement of the setup in the boggy part of the grassland next to Atlas, this has now been corrected.

More background information can be read in the article on the Resource website.