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Tree Power

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adaminc

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I saw this on tv a few days ago, but apparently, tree's generate power, MIT is looking into how, but the preliminary hypothesis is because there is constantly moving sap, it generates a potentional between the tree and ground, so by putting a nail in the tree and a nail in the ground, you can measure a potential, its very small, but if you had a massive forest, you could probably pull a lot of power, lol.

here's a link I just found on the subject.

**broken link removed**
 
one of the comments said:
PS -

If you read MagCap's actual press release, you will see on page 4 a description of the "invention".

"Simply drive an aluminum roofing nail through the bark and into the wood of a tree – any tree – approximately one half inch; drive a copper water pipe six or seven inches into the ground, then get a standard off-the-shelf digital volt meter and attach one probe to the pipe, the other to the nail and you’ll get a reading of anywhere from 0.8 to 1.2 volts of DC power.”

This was "dirty" power, so they rigged up a series of three capacitors in order to smooth out the current draw. With this arrangement, they got out approximately 2 volts of current.

Interesting number, "2 volts". The electric potential of reducing copper (the pipe) is +.34 volts, while the electric potential of oxidizing aluminum is -1.66 volts. Do a little math on the differential: (.34v) - (-1.66v) = 2 volts. Fancy that!

Believe me, if "tapping" the electrical potential of non-animal life forms (that's how MagCap puts it) was as simple as driving a nail into a tree and tying it off to a copper tube, we'd have been powering Atlanta that way for the past 100 years. Read the press release yourself - it's full of crackpottery.

Even if you drank the kool-aid and believed you were actually drawing down electrical energy from the plant, rather than from the nail, wouldn't this be harmful to the plant? Presumably, that electrical current would be there for a purpose (as are the human body's various weak electrical currents, which are used to do non-trivial things like keeping our hearts beating). Also, some process would have to be in place to generate that electricity - presumably some sort of solar power conversion. Considering that most of that solar energy is going into keeping the plant alive and growing via photosynthesis, it stretches the imagination that it would have a whole bunch of "leftover" energy that it would turn into electricity just so we could harvest it. What evolutionary pressure was working on trees to push them into being stationary electrical generators?

There really is nothing to see here, folks.
I agree, this makes sense to me, no invention here, just one big tree battery!

Wow there are some uber nubes working for that company.
 
You can also get a voltage difference from the tops of hills to their base, I have seen a 100v difference between earth voltages over 4Km difference but not much current.
 
Now, being a tree-hugger myself, I wonder if the nail would have any ill effects for the tree...

Nope, after re-reading the whole page, I wouldn't feel right killing a tree just to illuminate a LED.
 
Last edited:
Arctic Fox said:
Now, being a tree-hugger myself, I wonder if the nail would have any ill effects for the tree...

Nope, after re-reading the whole page, I wouldn't feel right killing a tree just to illuminate a LED.

Didn't tree-buggers use to drive iron spikes into trees, to bugger up chainsaws, hoping to keep the timber industry out of some areas?
 
Arctic Fox said:
Isn't this the same as the lemon/tomato/potato(e) batteries?

A potato/lemon/etc battery is a fraud in that it does not derive the energy from that item at all. The dissimilar metal electrodes (carbon & zinc for example) provide the energy and are consumed as the battery is used. The food item only becomes the electrolyte. Any acid or even salt water can serve the same purpose. It's not the source of energy any more than the wires connecting this device to the load are.
 
Someone Electro said:
You will put in more energy when hamering that nail in it.

At this age, all my energy needs to be conserved! ;)


HarveyH42: Yes we did - it's a "sacrifice one for the many" situation.

Oznog: Then you're also saying that a battery is not a source of energy. (and you might want to look up the word: fraud) ;)
 
Wow are you really 98?
 
Well, the lumber industry won't be too happy in replacing expensive blades from nails stuck in wood, nor the blemishes from those nails!! That doesn't even address the issue of injuries from chainsaw kickback if it hits a nail. Like Nigel states, chop 'em down and burn them... stored solar energy that's finally released!!
 
usmankhan said:
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Uuuh, what does that have to do with the topic, or the price of a barrel of oil as well? Are you posting in the wrong thread?
 
Arctic Fox said:
Oznog: Then you're also saying that a battery is not a source of energy. (and you might want to look up the word: fraud) ;)

Nope, the battery plates are more specifically the source of energy. The terminals, case, electrolyte are not. I made my lemon batteries in junior high by taking apart carbon-zinc batteries for the plates, which was sort of pointless.

It's a "fraud" in that it implies that potatoes, etc can be grown for power, but in fact you'd need to grow electrodes to do that. Not a really harmful fraud, just misinformation.

Guy makes a 500 lb potato battery, probably the world's largest:
http://latteier.com/potato/
 
The current from a tree will never be enough. I heard about taking the lids off power transistors once, and that was fun. I had with three of them in the sun, about 1.5 volts. I was excited, ran for an LED (to see it in the sunlight; right) until I saw the current.

So a tree and nail might have saved me some time on my waste of time..
 
adaminc said:
I saw this on tv a few days ago, but apparently, tree's generate power, MIT is looking into how, but the preliminary hypothesis is because there is constantly moving sap, it generates a potentional between the tree and ground, so by putting a nail in the tree and a nail in the ground, you can measure a potential, its very small, but if you had a massive forest, you could probably pull a lot of power, lol.

here's a link I just found on the subject.

**broken link removed**

There is an extention to this exp. you can try, if you set it up nail, copper &
voltmeter, then get an opserver to watch the meter, then go and get a bigger
nail & bigger hammer, apporche the tree. The opserver will notice a rise in volts as you close on the tree.

If you can belive this you can belive anything.
 
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