Earth's Internet: Electrical Conductivity of Trees

Dustin Schroeder, University of Washington

"Electrical engineers Babak Parviz and Brian Otis and undergraduate student Carlton Himes (right to left) demonstrate a circuit that runs entirely off tree power."

Electrical circuit runs entirely off power in trees

University of Washington

Vimeo: "Harnessing Nature's Solar Cells

Voltree Research Lab

Preventing forest fires with tree power Sensor system runs on electricity generated by trees

So researchers for some time now have been discovering the natural phenomena of slight electrical current running through the woody tissues of trees and no doubt other large shrubs. There is one company who is actually harnessing this power by creating small devices created with nanotechnology the ability to work as perpetually running sensors. In the case of Forestry, detecting moisture content of trees which across remote areas may be track by GPS and data fed into computer models to determine possible fire dangers or hazards. The idea is that once plugged into a tree by working off it's positive electrical energy and that of the other connection to a grounded copper rod driven in the Earth to pick up the negative charge, they should never have to change batteries which has always been a problem in remote regions in the past. The other technological solutions may be running sensors along the USA Border regions to detect illegal drug or Human trafficking. The company is called Voltree and here is their website.

http://www.voltreepower.com/

Take a look at some of the technology being used and the animated concepts

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here we can see the networked grid of censors being tracked and monitored by GPS to keep an eye on the data coming in from the remote field location.

Voltree.com

Stella Karavas of Voltree Power (Canton) shows Geoffrey G. Diehl | State Representative of Massachusettes a self-powering (solar/wind) low-voltage data collection/transmission unit for forest monitoring.

Below is another illustration from Voltree's sister company called MagCap Engineering.

Here are some Voltree company Videos describing and demonstrating the technology.

The bottom line here is that trees, shrubs and other vegetation do have a measure of electrical conductivity which is connected to the Earth. There are opened to mankind newer resources to be tapped into and properly taken care of if we just make the proper practical applications.

The discovery of tree power opens up new possibilities of looking into the global environment issues. Massive cutting down of trees contributes greatly to global warming, the grave and key environmental issue in the modern world. The increased temperature is caused by escalating greenhouse gases concentration. Global warming can be prevented or controlled only by trimming down the greenhouse gases concentration, which can be achieved only by trees. Planting more and more trees is the best and the most effective way to maintaining and actually re-establishing the Earth's ecological balance.The new discovery and  invention of a tree's capability to generate electricity should inspire everyone to plant trees and plants in their surroundings. This indirectly will save our planet from the serious issue of global warming. If more research open up new ways of using tree power, our dependence on non-renewable energies can be reduced to a great extent.It's also illustrative of just how nature actually works in the wild to generate and maintain the planet's healthy weather patterns.