Can Potato Batteries Provide a Safer Alternative?: Battery Technology: Eco20/20

Can Potato Batteries Provide a Safer Alternative?

Potatoes have long been one of the most useful vegetables and one of the world's cheapest sources of food. We love potatoes in all of their forms: chips, fries, mashed, roasted, baked, made into batteries. Wait a minute, batteries? Surprisingly, some scientists believe the ever popular spud could provide us with a terrific eco-friendly battery. These researchers believe that treated potatoes could be the basis for a solid organic electric battery that will provide a cheap answer to the power needs of many people on our planet.

In a joint venture between University of California at Berkeley and Hebrew University of Jerusalem, scientists have discovered that treated potatoes make a cheap, effective battery that may solve the problems of millions of people, especially in underdeveloped countries. By using a simple electrolysis-based process, researchers have increased the salt-bridge capacity in potatoes, making them a cheap and efficient energy source. Scientists also recently discovered that the electrical production from a potato's naturally occurring electrolytes can be 10 times stronger when its cell membranes are ruptured by boiling.

As of now, the potato batteries are relatively low power but can provide electricity for LEDs and some telecommunications devices. According to researchers, 20 hours of light can be generated by only one slice, and several slices combined could potentially provide sufficient power to operate simple medical equipment or a low-powered computer. This could be especially useful in areas where there is not sufficient access to a power supply. As for cost, regular batteries cost around 5-50 times more than the potato battery equivalent, with the cost of a potato battery being an average of 9 dollars per kilowatt hour as opposed to the 50 dollars per kilowatt hour cost of alkaline batteries. Additionally, discarded potatoes are completely harmless to the environment, unlike their traditional counterparts.

Some people are skeptical of the idea of potato power because they fear that this use of the vegetable may take away from the world's already insufficient food source. Potato battery proponents understand this concern but insist that this idea is useful to society because millions of people currently have no access to electricity and potatoes are the world's third highest produced food crop. In addition, they are very cost effective and can be grown in almost any area of the world, including tropical and subtropical areas. While it is true that many areas suffer a food shortage, it is also a fact that people without an energy source are effectively cut off from the rest of the world. If given the means, the populations of these underdeveloped areas could grow their own potato crops for both food and power, solving both problems at once. Will potato batteries be a major energy source in the future? Not likely. They can, however, provide energy to people who currently have none.