Soil Powered Lamp: A Fresh Take on “Dirty Energy”
Posted By Alexandra Kain On March 11, 2009 @ 5:00 am In Botanical,Green Appliances,Green Lighting,New York City,Renewable Energy | 8 Comments
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Soil [5] naturally contains energy conducive metals like zinc, copper and iron, and microbial fuel cells (sometimes referred to as an earth batteries [6]) are capable of converting electrolytes in soil into usable energy [7]. Dutch designer Marieke Strap’s Soil Lamp [8] uses conductive plates made from copper and zinc buried within the soil to provide constant and (nearly) eternal light for an LED bulb [9]. Maintaining a Soil Lamp is as simple as watering a plant – just feed it a splash of water every now and then to keep the energy flowing.
The Soil Lamp takes pride in its simplicity and innovation, baring all in a transparent bulbous base. The implications of creating energy [10] from soil are promising – as a free and abundant resource, nearly everyone in the world has access to dirt, save those living in deserts [11] or urban jungles [12]. Because of its naturally occurring conductivity, soil is easily converted into energy that will last far beyond the lifetime of an incandescent bulb [13], so long and its properly watered.
+ Mareike Staps [14]
Article printed from Inhabitat – Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building: http://inhabitat.com
URL to article: http://inhabitat.com/soil-lamp-is-powered-by-dirt/
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[3] Email: mailto:?subject=http://inhabitat.com/soil-lamp-is-powered-by-dirt/
[4] Image: http://www.inhabitat.com/?p=16171
[5] Soil: http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/05/22/light-the-world-using-dirt-powered-fuel-cells/
[6] earth batteries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_battery
[7] energy: http://www.inhabitat.com/category/energy/
[8] Soil Lamp: http://www.mariekestaps.nl/projects_soillamp.html
[9] LED bulb: http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/12/29/new-york-city-to-install-led-streetlamps/
[10] energy: http://www.bearflag.org/tag/energy/
[11] deserts: http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/10/23/desert-architecture-by-binary-design-studio/
[12] urban jungles: http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/02/23/lost-in-paris-house-by-r-and-sie-architects/
[13] incandescent bulb: http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/12/10/ireland-bans-incandescent-light-bulbs/
[14] + Mareike Staps : http://www.mariekestaps.nl/
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