Power from Trees... the hell you say?

[melbufrauma]

Electrical Circuit Runs Entirely Off Power In Trees

[wipers]

Now I have a reason to be a tree hugging hippie !

[scrockstar]

200mV per tree is about the same amount of energy it takes to fire one neuron in your brain twice.

[Qalbert]

you mean fire?

[Akucaen]

So you'd need, what, a forest to power an ipod?

srsly useful.

[Stiker]

While cool, I wonder if we can actually expect some kind of practical use for it, and furthermore, what kind of effect would it have on the trees if you were continuously running a circuit off of it. That energy just can't be coming from nowhere.

On another note, anyone else have any Matrix-type flashbacks when reading this?

[Fhqwghads]

You can get plenty of power from trees by setting them on fire.

[wipers]

There is no practical use for trees being used for electricity. They are more useful in their natural state.

[Jotaru]

Unless you could extract power from them while they are in their 'natural state'.

Not exactly a lot of power, but its highly 'practical', by definition.

[Dimmauk]

Electrical Circuit Runs Entirely Off Power In Trees

http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Page...-shyamalan.jpg

[thebearofscience]

1.21 gigawatts, that's like, 5 billion trees

[Diamicles]

Damn, I thought I learned all about this with the Potato experiment in 5th grade science class.

[grantlogan]

Maybe plug a digital clock into em so they can double as a clock tower. Or one of those old-school digital Tiger games.

[Acturus]

Wooden, inanimate things that double as power sources?

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_lQe0TjYpSv.../s320/whoa.jpg

Whoa...

[scrockstar]

Damn, I thought I learned all about this with the Potato experiment in 5th grade science class.

Pretty sure a potato does a better job than this

[Akucaen]

It could at least power a small light bulb.

[Alleya]

There is no practical use for trees being used for electricity. They are more useful in their natural state.

There are many sensors and small scientific instruments used in forest research that you could potentially power using a tree setup instead of having to rely on solar power which could be spotty in areas with thick canopy or lots of cloud cover. It even said in the article that they've already started a company to start producing this kind of stuff.

[Blarg]

Those trees are hollowed out and have generators in them.