You’ve always known that nearby plants were hoarding the power you needed to charge your iOS device.
Now it’s time to get that power back.
A new device called “E-Kaia”, developed by researchers in Chile, allows users to collect leftover energy created by photosynthesis to charge small devices, like mobile phones or LED lights, using a single healthy plant. As noted by the Manquehue Institute, the E-Kaia team says its invention can output as much as 5 volts at 0.6 amps.
By comparison, Apple’s USB power adapter for the iPhone pushes 5 watts at 1 amp.
Few details about the device are known, save for the fact that photosynthetic energy is captured from a nearby plant through a “biocircuit board”. This is not surprising, as the research group behind E-Kaia has a number of patents under review.
Creators Evelyn Aravena, Carolina Guerrero, and Camila Rupcich hope to commercialize E-Kaia this year, having received funding from the economic development arm of the Chilean government.
E-Kaia is not the first system of this type, but if the technology holds up it would prove to be by far the most efficient. Plant-e, based in the Netherlands, says its competing solution requires 100 square meters of plants to harvest a similar amount of energy.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via AppleInsider
One reply on “E-Kaia power adapter extracts energy from plants, can charge mobile devices”
E-Kaia power adapter extracts energy from plants, can charge mobile devices http://t.co/WqMYoFxfwN #mobile #PowerFromPlants #GreenEnergy