- Marieke Staps
Dutch designer Marieke Staps has taken a different approach to finding an alternative source of energy to power her lamp creation. She looked high and low, then took a second glance beneath her and found the renewable energy source she was looking for: dirt.
Well, to be more exact, mud. A handful of dirt in the base of the lamp dampened with a bit of water and — voila! — instant bio power source.
Staps writes: "The metabolism of biological life together with the chemical reaction of copper and zinc produce enough electricity to keep a LED lamp burning. The mud is enclosed in various cells. These cells contain copper and zinc that conduct the electricity. The more cells there are, the more electricity they generate. This technique offers a wealth of possibilities. The only thing that the lamp needs is a splash of water every now and then."
Just think of the future possibilities with this technology — someday we could be filling the "gas" tanks of our electric cars with mud!
Information via Marieke Staps and ReNest. Photo: Marieke Staps.
This article appears in Apr 21-27, 2011.