Plant-Powered Lamps Light Up A Peruvian Rainforest Village

Plantalámparas is a lamp that runs on plant power.

The device comes from UTEC, the Universidad de Ingenieria y Tecnologia and is designed to be used in a remote Peruvian village that has no access to electricity.

This lamp lookalike takes power from a plant living in a wooden box and uses it to light an LED lamp.

The Plantalámparas uses the byproducts of photosynthesis to power the lamp.

When the plant creates energy from sunlight, it deposits waste products into the soil. These decompose, thanks to microorganisms in the soil, and undergo oxidization, which produces electrons.

Electrodes in the soil gather this energy and store it in batteries, where it can be used to light LED bulbs that have the equivalent output of a 50-watt incandescent bulb.

Video source: Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología – UTEC