As global electricity demand keeps rising sharply, the World Health Organisation confirmed in 2024 that the world will not achieve Sustainable Development Goal 7 by 2030, which aims to ensure universal access to “affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy.”

Even more concerning, in 2022, the number of people without access to electricity increased for the first time in over a decade, leaving 685 million people without electricity. By 2030, no less than 660 million people will still lack electricity.

Brilliant minds worldwide are therefore exploring solutions for cleaner and accessible electricity, using an unexpected ally: plants.

Protecting local communities in the Himalayas with pine needles – Avani

Pine needles are highly flammable. “The dryness and the oil content of the pine needles make them instantly catch fire,” explains Arti Kashyap, associate professor at IIT-Mandi, in a World Economic Forum article.

This is particularly observed in the Himalayan region of Uttarakhand during the summer, where pine needles are produced in large quantities, around 1.67 billion kilograms annually, according to a 2024 study. By catching fire, they could release 58.37 billion kilograms of CO2 in Uttarakhand annually.

In addition to threatening local populations and ecosystems, pine needles form an impenetrable layer on the ground that prevents rainwater from entering the soil and “creates completely infertile land,” says Rajnish Jain, founder of the power company Avani.

Seeing all these problems related to pine needles, Jain decided to explore their use as a source of electricity. Since 2009, Avani has been “collect[ing] the pine needles in the forest before they burn… and [bringing] them to a facility where we cut them into smaller pieces,” describes Jain.

These pieces are then placed in a biomass gasifier, where they burn partially. While burning, they react with the oxygen in the reactor and turn into carbon dioxide (CO2), a process called oxidation.

Then, oxygen is gradually removed from the reactor, and the CO2 turns into carbon monoxide. Other gases are also generated during this process, called reduction. All these gases are then sent to an engine, which produces green electricity, according to Jain.

2.5 kilograms of pine needles generate one unit of electricity, equivalent to one kilowatt-hour. Each year, Avani uses 100 tons of pine needles for the smallest facility, and up to 250 tons for the two largest. Per power plant, this represents 100,000 units, or the energy for 50 to 100 households.

Combustion also produces a type of charcoal, called biochar. If placed in the soil, biochar can help “rebuild the soil ecology sustainably,” explains Jain, as it retains 75% of carbon and stores it in the ground. “People have reported a two to three times increase in their productivity in agriculture,” he adds. With this result, Jain recently decided to increase biochar production from 10% to 40%.

Image credit: Pile of biochar produced from pine needles by Avani power plants in Uttarakhand. Provided by Rajnish Jain, founder of Avani, to Greenauve.

Avani, therefore, improves access to electricity and provides paid employment. “Each facility employs about 30 people in the collection of pine needles,” announces Jain.

Moreover, by reducing fire risks, “We have started regaining in this landscape the Himalayan Oak,” explains Jain, proof that the ecosystem is regenerating.

Some challenges persist, such as the instability of the grid in India or the difficulty of securing funding. The solution, which doesn’t exist elsewhere, could also be developed, but only if pine needles are available in quantity, and likely not in large cities where pine trees are lacking, according to Jain.

Empowering remote communities in Peru with living plants – Plantalámpara

Image credit: Children from Nuevo Saposoa using the Plantalámpara to study, in Peru. Picture from the Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología (UTEC), Lima, Perú, provided to Greenauve.

According to the International Finance Corporation, 30% of the population in the Peruvian Amazon lacks access to electricity, particularly in the Ucayali region, where the community of Nuevo Saposoa lives.

Accessible only by water and hours from the nearest town, this community lost electricity after a hurricane in 2015, and had to use petrol lamps, a danger to their lungs and eyes. It means, when night falls, social, professional, and educational activities come to a halt.

It is in this dark environment that the University of Engineering and Technology (UTEC) in Peru created a lamp called Plantalámpara, which finds its energy from the plant’s nutrients.

The idea is to “put the plant and soil into a wooden plant pot together with a… protected irrigation system. Then, inside the pot, we place the energy generation system [which is] capable of converting plant nutrients into electric energy,” announces Elmer Ramirez, professor at UTEC and lead researcher of this project, in a UTEC press release.

 The plant absorbs the nutrients important for its development and releases the rest into the soil, where they decompose with the help of soil bacteria. While decomposing, electrons will be released through a natural chemical reaction called oxidation.

The electrodes, placed in the soil, will then capture the electrons, which will be stored in a battery, allowing the LED lamp to be lit.

Ten Plantalámparas, which can operate for two hours per day, were sent by UTEC to Nuevo Saposoa, according to Jessica Ruas, Marketing Director at UTEC.

She explains in the press release, “This will result in a better quality of life for community families because by using the Plantalámpara, they will have access to renewable energy to provide light to their homes for use by the children during their school work study hours or during work hours to produce and sell their products.”

Plantalámpara is an example of how to use the Amazon’s natural resources without harming the environment, while empowering remote communities. However, since the inception of this project, no agreements have been made for its adoption in other communities, although information has been shared with students from international universities, according to Ramirez.

Lowering reliance on fossil fuels for low-power applications with living plants – Plant-e

Image credit: Scheme of the Plant-e technology, capturing electrons in the soil from the plants. Image from Plant-e, provided to Greenauve.

Similar to Plantalámpara, Plant-e, based in the Netherlands, also decided to use living plants to generate electricity. However, “Plant-e is the patent holder of this technology and the first one to make use of it,” clarifies Marjolein Helder, CEO of Plant-e. The company harnesses plant nutrients and the electrons released to produce continuous electricity. 

“Currently, our goals and projects are focused on plant-powered lighting and remote sensing,” explains Helder.

Their plant microbial fuel cell technology is suited for small applications, such as Wi-Fi hotspots in schools, LED lights, and information centres.

The solution thrives particularly in wetlands – where plants grow in water. Plant-e succeeded in lighting public parks with their technology installed in basins. Using rice paddies as wetlands could also help remote communities access electricity while growing crops. 

The materials used are extremely resistant, with a lifespan of 50 to 100 years, which could help the environment and reduce the need for battery replacement.

Additionally, since 2019, Plant-e has been developing sensors that don’t require batteries or electricity from the grid. By combining them with water points, the technology could be used to “remotely monitor, for example, vulnerable nature or water levels in a sustainable and cost-effective manner,” affirms Plant-e, as is already the case at the Dommel Water Board, which manages the Dommel River basin.

Plant-e is currently developing new ideas, such as using their solution in arid regions with EcoSentinel, as well as “a project that delivers plant-powered lights to schools as an education tool,” says Helder.

Wageningen University – where the technology was first discovered – hopes that this solution will “address different societal challenges such as the global energy transition, water scarcity, connecting remote communities and sustainable food production.”

Helder clarifies, “The electrical output of our system is very little.” However, “Our technology delivers electricity over a long time, whereas humans use it on a much smaller timescale. We have accepted the limitations of the power output… [but] that doesn’t mean we’re still in an early phase, quite the contrary,” she continues.

“We think collaborating with nature is better than exploiting nature. With this, we mean that we want to harvest just enough energy to power our devices and use the electricity functionally. This way, we do not put any pressure on nature,” ends Helder.