More magic than science
Nuevo Saposoa is a small and modest indigenous community in the heart of the Peruvian jungle, where the rhythm of daily life is governed by nature. The village is only accessible by a 5-hour boat ride along the Ucayali River from the town of Pucallpa (in the Ucayali region, in the extreme east of Peru). There are 173 people of the Shipibo-Conibo ethnic group living in Nuevo Saposoa, one of the largest yet most forgotten indigenous groups of Peru.
In March 2015, a severe flood changed their course of life. The rustic local power plants were damaged, the cables were destroyed and Nuevo Saposoa lost access to the little electricity it had. In the middle of the Amazon, a village was left in darkness. The Peruvian government struggled to intervene in the short term.
It was then that a team of professors and students from the Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología (UTEC) came up with the idea of creating Plantalámparas ("plant lamps"). Why not solve the problem caused by nature with a solution from nature, they asked.
Elmer Ramírez, a professor at UTEC, explains that Plantalámparas are efficient, energy-saving lamps (300 lumens) that generate light using photosynthesis from plants. "Plants take CO2 (carbon dioxide) from the environment and water and minerals from the ground. Using these components, plants produce nutrients to grow, but they make these nutrients in excess. The plant expels the excess nutrients into the ground, where they interact with various micro-organisms in a complex electrochemical process, generating electrons," explains Ramírez.
He continues, "We capture these electrons using electrodes and store them in a battery. Once charged, this battery can power an efficient, energy-saving lamp. A Plantalámpara can stay on for two hours, and then can always be recharged using the same process we described before. It is an environmentally friendly product."
When the professors and students from UTEC travelled to Nuevo Saposoa and explained the process by which a plant could generate electric light, the inhabitants were skeptical. And when they performed their tests and the first light bulb was turned on, there were a few nervous laughs, as if it were a magic trick rather than science.
"It's a type of renewable energy that has a lot to give, since there are plants all over the world," explains Marcello Gianino, a young university student.
The impact of the plant lamps on the daily life of the Nuevo Saposoa inhabitants is already beginning to be felt. For now, many children hope to finish school so they can study something related to energy and the environment at university.