Health is wealthTapping Trees for Electricity
Trees might be the source of the ultimate green power and researchers have figured out a way to plug into the power generated by trees. Scientists have found out that plants can produce electricity. It can pack up to 200 millivolts of electrical power. A millivolt is one-thousandth of a volt. A big Maple trees generated steady voltage of up to a few hundred millivolts. Powering a circuit, however, required a much higher voltage. To extraxt power from trees and convert it into useful energy, experts built a boost converter capable of picking up as little as a 20 millivolt output and storing it to produce a greater output. By hooking up to a tree using electrodes, the custom-built device was able to generate an output voltage of 1.1 volts, enough to run low power sensors.
