EuroNews: A Japanese Inventor is Turning Soil Into a Source of Electricity

Well grounded? Japanese designer Satoshi Nakagawa is using soil, compost and other everyday materials to generate small amounts of electricity that could power sensors, lights, and other low-energy devices in off-grid settings.

EuroNews via AFP reports:

Glinting in the night, halfway up a hill in Japan, the greenhouse-like ‘Ku-An’ test lab is lit by electricity harnessed from 1,500 wooden boxes of soil and compost.

Designer Satoshi Nakagawa has long battled sceptics, but believes that the technology powering the 800 LEDs has a role to play in solving humanity’s energy conundrum. Failing that, it at least looks nice and gets people thinking.

“As the population moves toward 10 billion, energy issues will become just as critical as food issues,” says Nakagawa, chief executive of design firm Tripod Design. “Even if it’s just a small contribution, I want people to be able to produce their own electricity using the soil around them,” the Japanese product designer and engineer told news agency AFP.

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