Japanese Inventor Generates Electricity with Wine, Soil and French Bread

On a hillside in Japan, a greenhouse-like test laboratory glows at night using electricity generated by 1,500 wooden boxes filled with soil and compost. The installation powers 800 LED lights and represents Satoshi Nakagawa’s effort to turn tiny electrical currents into a practical technology.

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As the population approaches 10 billion, energy problems will become as critical as food problems.

The 72-year-old designer and engineer, who heads the design firm Tripod Design, calls his approach “microenergy harvesting.” He says it can draw small currents from many materials, including wine, soil and French bread. The system follows the same basic mechanism as the voltaic pile, the first electric battery capable of supplying direct current, invented by Alessandro Volta in 1800.

The method places electrodes made from materials such as zinc and copper into substances containing moisture or ions. The system then collects small but continuous electrical currents. Nakagawa says he wants people to produce at least some of their own electricity from the soil around them. He believes the technology could power low-energy autonomous devices, including sensors that detect animal damage to farmland, river flooding and landslides, as well as burglar alarms.

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Even if it is only a small contribution, I want people to be able to produce their own electricity from the soil around them.

Once installed, the technology produces no carbon dioxide and does not depend on weather conditions in the way solar and wind power do, Nakagawa said. His prototypes include an autonomous node resembling a post that draws power from the ground and transmits data to a satellite. He also uses the technology in art installations, where flexible rods planted in soil glow like fireflies in tall grass.

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Its output is significantly lower than that of ordinary or car batteries.

Some colleagues admire the installations but question whether the system works as an energy source. Masayuki Nakao, an emeritus engineering professor at the University of Tokyo, said its output is significantly lower than that of ordinary or car batteries. He added that Nakagawa’s work can still move people because the light it creates is beautiful. Nakagawa remains convinced that researchers should design new products around the technology as energy problems grow more serious with the world’s population.

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What is remarkable about Nakagawa's works is that the light he creates has the power to move our feelings. People are moved when they see it. They are beautiful.