Over the last 20 years there have been significant efforts to produce green electricity. The most common sources of green energy are the sun, wind and hydroelectricity.
However people want to find newer and better sources of producing green energy and recent advancements have led to producing green energy by harnessing tree power.
This concept of producing power from the trees came into existence in 2006. When scientists were doing research about the forests, they came upon an interesting fact that there were ph differences between the soil and the inside trunk of the trees. This condition creates a voltage difference and the voltage is similar to the one found in our rechargeable batteries. The charge can be created by hammering a nail in the trunk and then placing a conductor of voltage in the soil. There is a consistent charge passing through the wire. Studies suggest that it is possible to tap anywhere between 5 to 300 nanowatts of power from each tree.
The first application that has come to mind is to use the harnessed power from the trees to ring the fire alarms. These alarms work on a battery that is connected to the fire sensor. The sensor provides a radio transmission to the forest department as soon as it is triggered. In 2009, the US forest service gave the contract to a green energy company to install such a fire alarm system in several forests. The first such systems were installed in the month of March, 2010.
Apart from installing the fire alarm system there are myriad other applications where tree harnessed power can be used. For example, sensors sunning on tree power can be used to track down unauthorized movements at the country’s borders. The sensors could also be used to track contraband and radioactive material. There are other ways to harness tree power such as powering road lights as well as charging hybrid automotive batteries.
Since harnessing electricity from trees has limitless potential, efforts are on to grow trees specially to meet the purpose. These artificially made trees will absorb the energy from the sun and the wind. They will be installed across roadways and parking lots so that the power from them can be used for various purposes in those areas. There are some people who might be skeptical about these artificial trees, the power from tress holds unlimited potential for the future.