The Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología (UTEC) has developed a lamp powered by energy from plants to bring artificial light to remote and tropical parts of Peru.
The Plant lamp can supply two hours of light a day using the energy stored in the soil containing nutrients and microorganisms released by plants during their growth.
Ten of the lamps have been given to families in the native community of Nuevo Saposa in Ucayali, a region which has the lowest rate of access to electricity in Peru but is surrounded by vast amounts of vegetation rich in flora.
The team of researchers - made up of teachers and eight students – developed a renewable energy generating system to harness the free electrons from the microorganisms to ‘feed’ the low energy consumption, high illumination LED lamp.
Elmer Ramirez, professor of Energy and Power Engineering at UTEC and leader of the Plant lamp research team said: “We put the plant and soil into a wooden plant pot together with a previously established and properly protected irrigation system.
“Then, inside the pot we place the energy generation system that we created which stores soil and electrodes capable of converting plant nutrients into electric energy.”
He adds that the Plant lamp was created to show that society’s problems can be solved through engineering.
“We made proper use of the Amazon region’s own natural resources such as the soil and plants, in harmony with the environment without any impact whatsoever on the forest.”
“While there are shortages of a number of resources in Nuevo Saposoa, the absence of electric energy has a major impact on its social, educational and family development,” says Jessica Ruas, UTEC marketing director.
Ruas adds: “We are positive that this will result in a better quality of life for community families because by using the Plantalámpara, they will have access to renewable energy to provide light to their homes for use by the children during their school work study hours or during work hours to produce and sell their products and with this, contribute to the self-sustainability of the population.”
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