BY ADELE PETERS – FastCompany.Com
Inline-Bioo-Panel - Latest Discovery - Renewable Energy
Bioo uses microorganisms in the soil to power lights—and maybe one day, your whole house.
In a park on the Spanish island of Ibiza, a prototype for new renewable energy isn’t a huge spinning turbine or a field of solar panels. Instead, it’s partially hidden underground: a biological battery that is generating energy from the soil itself.
Pablo Vidarte, the 24-year-old founder of Bioo, the biotech startup developing the panel, started thinking about the concept in a dream. “In the dream, I asked, is it possible to treat the leaves of a plant as a solar panel?” he says. “The short answer is no. But there are ways in which you can actually treat nature as a battery to produce energy for yourself without harming [the environment].”
As it rains, or when the ground is irrigated, nutrients and microorganisms leach from the soil into the new biological battery. Inside the battery, microorganisms feeding on organic matter produce protons and electrons, sending electrons to the anode and protons to the cathode. Air coming through holes in the exposed part of the panel provides oxygen. The process produces a current that can power lights or sensors—and eventually, if scaled up, could potentially power an entire house.
There are several advantages, Vidarte says. “You have an energy source that’s producing electricity during daytime and nighttime,” he says. “So it’s 24-7 production of energy. It doesn’t matter if it’s raining or snowing, it will produce the same amount of energy.” Unlike a large solar farm that might displace nature—as in South Korea, where 2 million trees have been cut down in recent years to make room for solar panels—the biological panels can work without impacting plants growing in a field. The technology uses materials (such as graphite) that are more abundant than those used in solar panels, so when mass-manufactured, it could potentially compete on price, though the startup is only beginning to collect data about how much energy the panels can generate.
On Spanish Island | Credit Bioo
One of the first places the tech will be used is on farms, where biological batteries can power sensors that gather data like humidity and pH of the soil, mapping out the field so farmers can optimize the conditions for growing crops. (Right now, this type of sensor usually uses traditional batteries that are less sustainable, and that have to be continually replaced.) The sensors could eventually also be used to measure other factors like the amount of carbon stored in soil—a crucial data point as farmers using regenerative agriculture techniques aim to earn carbon credits for fighting climate change. Larger panels, like the ones installed in the Ibiza park, can be used to power lighting.
The company, which is also working on more experimental technology that turns plants into switches that activate light or sound, expects to bring the Bioo Panels to the market by the end of 2021 or early 2022.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adele Peters is a staff writer at Fast Company who focuses on solutions to some of the world's largest problems, from climate change to homelessness.
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Nicholas Tesla invented Electricity, not Edison, he was the brains of the outfit, so to speak. He was working for Edison. He made other remarkable inventions too - some of which are being introduced into the market Today.
In short, the story goes like this: Just after he invented Electricity we have worldwide today, he realised it would be a Serious Danger to People's Health and urged his associates not to use it. Those dangers are well known to Natural Health Professionals and Scientists as Electrical Smog in our atmosphere referred to as Positive IONS. Some of you who are well informed about things and Natural Health advocates know about EMFs (Electromagnetic Fields) the harmful affect they have on us, and the workforce there is in certain countries, trying to combat it's affects on our health through powerlines and electricity boxes, appliances and tech devices in our houses.
Immediately after Tesla invented that, he invented a Safer kind of Energy that runs on the Earth's Currents, which are compatible with the currents in our body. He quickly called the Bank Financiers together and showed the astonishing results. Light bulbs were placed onto the ground and lit up (I saw a video of this being demonstrated). Just like Big Pharma today, they didn't like the idea at all because it meant little profit, being "Natural"........and you guessed it, they killed him, dispensed of his work and notes and covered their tracks.
They also made sure he would not be included in history books. So not many of us have heard about him until recent years. What the Financiers didn't know is, he sometimes feared something could happen to him, so he sent copies of his work to a trusted friend in a different country and that's why, years later, we know some of his inventions Today, including the Tesla Battery Pack I have that came with my Solar Panels.
May I suggest, the Inline Bioo Invention would be a good way to go because it works on the Earth's Currents in some way that are Compatible With Ours! I would like to see it go places, would you?
One question I have since I found the Teslar story is "How-come we don't have the Natural Energy now, he invented then, since Other Tesla Inventions are in use now?" Is it because the greedy mongers in our world Today are not interested, therefore it isn't released for us? No doubt, many of you probably have the same question. I do think they are much more interested in his inventions they can get the most profit from - human nature has not changed. That's all the more reason I like to have Stories about Good People on this website, who show benevolence etc. Do Enjoy!