Growing Plant-e, a Netherlands based company has launched the world’s first sustainable electricity producing plant company. A spin-off of a joint research project at Wageningen University, the team has spent the last couple of years working on the development of a product based on innovative technology that allows electricity to be harvested while plants grow.

The technology which makes it possible to make electricity with living plants was developed in 2007 in Wageningen, and patented by the Department of Environmental Technology of Wageningen University. After the first successful experiments, researchers Dr. SDavid Strik and Dr. Marjolein Clear launched several major research projects and requested funding through grants in 2009. The technology from Plant-e uses natural processes that take place in and around plant biology. The research team discovered that plants produce organic materials using solar energy through photosynthesis. A portion of the organic material is excreted via the roots. Around the roots bacteria break down organic material in which electrons are released. Plants provide electrodes to the bacteria so that the electrons are delivered to an electrode. By a second electrode to the first to link the electrons of one electrode to the other streams, which produces electricity while the plant grows.

Electricity producing plants is not necessarily a new technology. Researchers at MIT were able to produce electricity from a broad leaf Maple tree. However, what is fascinating about this area of scientific work is, the energy produced was able to be stored in the tree and then used to run small electronic devices.

Green plants are known to be able to harvest the energy from the sun and transform that energy into food and oxygen. This process is known as photosynthesis. In photosynthesis the photons (units of light energy) from the sun hit certain molecules inside the chloroplasts (the small green organelles inside the plant cell) causing the emission of an electron. This electron moves from one molecule to another through a series of cytochromes (certain types of proteins) called photosystems I and II. While the electron is moving it is losing the energy it acquired from the photon (from the sun light) and this energy is transformed into two chemical forms of energy (NADPH2 and ATP). And finally the electron is used to help split the water molecule which is the first step on releasing oxygen to the atmosphere.

With agriculture taking up more and more land, the promise of growing food while fueling human activity in a sustainable way is quite substantial. Growing research suggests that within a decade or so we could see working models of plants as direct sources of energy. For cities and rural outposts alike, the notion of plant fueled energy could fuel a renaissance in planning and development.

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Plant-e: http://www.plant-e.com