Partial photo: Cinescope Creative
A new method to generate electricity from wood could power a building’s lights and displays by harvesting energy from visitors’ footfalls. The simple, low-cost, eco-friendly process uses fungus to rot wood and make it springy, so it can produce power when squeezed. Wood can be piezoelectric, generating electric power when mechanically deformed. It’s been chemically modified to make it elastic, boosting the piezoelectric power output by 55 times. A dice-sized cube of the spongy wood produced a voltage of 0.87V, enough power for a small sensor, when squished repeatedly 500 times. That could light up a LED light bulb.
www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2021/03/footsteps-could-light-up-homes-with-power-generating-wooden-floors/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=footsteps-could-light-up-homes-with-power-generating-wooden-floors&utm_source=Anthropocene&utm_campaign=cf3575c6c7-Anthropocene+science+to+AM&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ececcea89a-cf3575c6c7-294331733