Soil nutrients is powering plant lamps in Peru, bringing electricity to remote areas in an environmentally-friendly way.

Areas of the globe that do not have access to electricity grids face everyday challenges that many take for granted, such as having lights.

Kerosene is often turned to in order to provide light, however this results in smoke and fumes that are both harmful to people and the earth.

Residents of a remote native community in Peru, Nuevo Saposoa, have been picked to receive ‘plant lamps’.

The experimental plant lamps provide bright LED lighting for two hours a day, with little power consumption sourced directly from nutrients found in the plants and soil.

An engineer from the University of Technology and Engineering (UTEC) Elmer Ramirez described how exactly this idea works.

“We put the plant and soil into a wooden plant pot together with a previously established and properly protected irrigation system,” he said.

“Then, inside the pot we place the energy generation system that we created which stores soil and electrodes capable of converting plant nutrients into electric energy.”

Researchers have collaborated with advertising agency Foote, Cone & Belding (FCB) to create 10 trial plant lamps.

The lamps were donated to the village of Nuevo Saposoa, an area found in the rain forest of Ucayali. Residents of Nuevo Saposoa are known for having the lowest electricity access in Peru.

The village is separated from Peru’s electrical infrastructure by this thick rainforest, which is perfect for building more plant lamps due to the extensive levels of flora and vegetation.

The plant lamps are powered by the free electrons from microorganisms that plants release when growing.

“We made proper use of the Amazon region’s own natural resources such as the soil and plants, in harmony with the environment without any impact whatsoever on the forest,” said Mr Ramirez.

Plant lamps have huge effect on everyday life

Lighting is a valuable resource that assists people when cooking, working and entertaining after the sun sets, but one of the main benefits that the plant lamps will provide is allowing school children of the village to have additional hours in the day which they can use for reading and writing.

Ucayali does not have a strong education system; less than 30 per cent of residents do not attend secondary school, and an astounding 15 per cent of the population are illiterate.

UTEC’s marketing director Jessica Ruas spoke of how helpful the plants lamps will be.

“While there are shortages of a number of resources in Nuevo Saposoa, the absence of electric energy has a major impact on its social, educational and family development. We are positive that this will result in a better quality of life for community families because, by using the Plantalámpara, they will have access to renewable energy to provide light to their homes for use by the children during their school work study hours … [and] contribute to the self-sustainability of the population,” she said.

To learn more about the revolutionary plants lamps, check out UTEC’s video here. 

Photo courtesy of James Jordan