You have probably already heard about power from flowers but have you heard about tree power? Well if you haven’t then read on because it seems like power from trees is the next big thing. So what is tree power all about? Well the power from trees is small yet measurable. Now according to researchers at the University of Washington there is enough power from trees that can run an electronic circuit. The results of their research are going to be published in the latest edition of Electrical and Electronics Engineering.   Read more about Nanotechnology in the Energy Industry: Applications and Market Potential

According to a study last year by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology plants can actually generate an electric current of 200 millivolts. One electrode is placed in the plant and the other is placed in the surrounding soil to measure the current. Those researchers have now gone ahead and started a company which develops forest sensors that enable them to exploit tree power as a new power source.

The team from the University of Massachusetts wanted further research done into the field of tree power. They wanted to build circuits that will be able to run on that electricity. They did however succeed at running a small circuit solely off pure power from trees. Carlton Himes co-author and undergraduate said he spent all last summer trying to exploit trees and likely sites. He hooked nails to trees and then connected a voltmeter to determine which trees produced the most tree power. He found big leaf maples which were also quite common on the University’s campus produced a good steady voltage of a few hundred millivolts.

The University of Massachusetts team later built a small electrical devise which could run on the power from trees. The boost converter development was led by Brian Otis who is also an assistant professor of electrical engineering. The devise essentially takes a lower voltage and then stores it in order to produce greater output. The booster converter takes in as little as 20 millivolts tree power which is not able to power any existing device and then boost it up to 1.1 volts which is enough tree power to run a lower power sensor.
If you look at the circuit which the team built to harness power from trees it’s actually built from parts

measuring as little as 130 nanometers and consumes just 10 nanowatts on average when in operation. Even though very low power from tree devices are used and the boost converter is used to power devices it will still spend most of the time sleeping in order to store energy from the power from trees which will create complications. So as a way around this problem Otis and his team built a clock that runs on 1 nanowatt which is roughly around one thousandth of the power from trees it takes to power a regular wristwatch. However when its turned on it operates at a good 350 millivolt which is about a quarter of the voltage there is in a AA battery. Now what the low powered clock does is produce a small electrical pulse once every few seconds which allows the wake period of the system.