Original story

Extract from Energypower Annual Report, 2017

Energypower Ltd Annual Report:

R&D Dept. Electric Plant & Forestry Project

The Research and Development Department has been led during the period under review by Prof. Akorn Suphorn. The Department employed 192 persons at the end of the year. Operational and database processing capacity averaged 900,000 Gb/min. These figures also include computer-driven artificial organisms.

In the course of the year the R& D Department has been engaged on a number of projects geared to new sources of energy. The most successful venture has been the energy forest, which is already into the pilot phase. In contrast, investigations into the extraction of heat from the earth’s crust, slow-filtering of solar radiation, and marine current generators have shown that at this point the technology is not economically viable. They will be re-examined in a year or two, by which time energy transfer technology may have developed in such a way to render them financially attractive methods of energy generation.

The genetic design programme for the energy forest was first laid down in 2014. At that time it was still regarded as a somewhat unrealistic and utopian idea, as results of gene splicing between plants and animals had not been very encouraging. Researchers nevertheless recognized that the principle worked in theory, even allowing for the differences existing between plant and animal cells.

Two plant species were chosen for the experiment, bamboo and white willow. Each of these have long been acknowledged as rapid producers of energy. In trials, the bamboo has shown itself to be more suitable both as a plant and in terms of its tolerance of genetic manipulation. In the initial stages, genes were implanted from the electric eel (Electrophorus electricus) and the Nile bichir (Polypterus bichir). Laboratory tests indicated that electrical cell genes from the bichir in combination with bamboo saplings gave by far the most promising results. Whilst the electric eel offers a potentially greater charge, it would appear that the use of this species in this context is not economically sound, as accelerated studies proved that the grafted cell tissue begins to generate electricity only after several years, as in the case of the fish itself.

By the end of the year under review, the saplings in the Department’s pilot electro-bamboo plantation were already 14 months old, and had reached a height of several metres. The amount of electricity produced by the plants is measured on a regular basis. In the last quarter of the year, the yields were already so large that it is safe to assume the plant will become economically viable in commercial use. It must be noted, however, that an electro-bamboo forest must be at least 12 hectares in area, as sufficient energy levels can only be achieved by connecting up several hundred plants. Simulations have shown that a 40-hectare forest of trees will generate enough power after three years to provide the normal electrical requirements of a community of 9,000 dwellings.

The production of electricity in the bamboo trees takes place in such a way that the electrically-charged cells ionise fluids in the plant’s cell tissue as they flow up the stem from the roots towards the crown of the tree. In this way, the crown becomes negatively charged, and the base of the trunk is positively charged. This same phenomenon was first observed in England some twenty years ago. As a result of the magnetic fields generated within electrical plants, the plant’s metabolic rate is accelerated. The bamboos affect neighbouring bamboo trees, and thus the effect is cumulative. This in turn markedly increases the rate of growth of the individual trees and the amount of energy produced.

The Research and Development Department will be continuing its research on three levels. It has already been shown that electro-bamboos produce more electricity in direct response to increased levels of sunlight on the leaves. Also, the larger the surface-area of the foliage, the greater the energy output becomes. The Department is currently examining ways to genetically increase the size of bamboo leaves. A second ongoing research project will continue the search for alternative plants suitable for electricity generation, and a third group is engaged on finding and isolating a genetic combi-plant that would also store electricity, and could thus be grown to form a kind of permanent accumulator or electrical storage cell.

Toteuma-arvio 2026

Toteuma lyhyesti

  • Ilmiön toteuma: 3/5
  • Toteuma viiden vuoden tarkkuudella: kyllä; arviointi-ikkuna on 2012–2022
  • Toteuma väljemmällä aikahorisontilla: kyllä, mutta tutkimusasteella
  • Ilmiön ydin: kasvien fotosynteesiä ja biologisia sähkövirtoja käytetään suoraan energiantuotantoon.

Kasvi-mikrobi-polttokennoilla ja biofotovoltaaiikalla on tuotettu sähköä elävien kasvien ja maaperämikrobien aineenvaihdunnasta. Teho on pieni, eikä sähköä tuottavista metsistä ole tullut kaupallista voimalaitosmuotoa.

Johtopäätös: ennuste toteutui teknisenä tutkimussuuntana mutta ei taloudellisena energiaratkaisuna.