Expect stable power supply by October – Minister of Power

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-8236998644224384565" itemprop="description articleBody" style="position: relative; width: 660px;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); color: black; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: 19px;">                  </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic8xlBWjFhzZDEsk1xwFefaawmqOQizYiQD_oz6vOQBXQ-mE7JvWrC_qhuKMHpimcRJiwIHKgYr4ex9o3H6C1_DaRP9Ms2omjNmv6GpJGZlDlSGosL_0jIYvr5QrYsKDWS9unwg6Z4ilQ/s1600/Chinedu-Nebo-new.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic8xlBWjFhzZDEsk1xwFefaawmqOQizYiQD_oz6vOQBXQ-mE7JvWrC_qhuKMHpimcRJiwIHKgYr4ex9o3H6C1_DaRP9Ms2omjNmv6GpJGZlDlSGosL_0jIYvr5QrYsKDWS9unwg6Z4ilQ/s1600/Chinedu-Nebo-new.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></span></div> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Federal Government, Friday, said that the country will experience more stabilized power supply by  the beginning of October.<br /><br />The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo who said this while speaking with State House correspondents after a meeting presided over by Vice President Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja also stated that some measures had been put in place to ensure stable electricity.<br /><br /> Part of the strategies, he said, was the method put in place to ensure availability of gas for generation companies, according to reports from Punch. He said the step had started yielding results as some parts of the country had started experiencing more stabilised power supply.</span><blockquote class="tr_bq"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> He said, “The cheering news from all of these is that if you have noticed throughout the country in the past one week, people have been getting much better power supply. “The gas is now beginning to come back and it is something that gives all of us a lot of joy.</span></blockquote> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“And we know that it will continue to grow that way even until December. “</span></blockquote> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The gas producers have come to a place where almost all of these is being taken care of. “</span></blockquote> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So that part of the shortfalls we've had in production up to this time, we hope that by the beginning of October, we will see a much better stabilization of the entire power delivery system in the country.” </span></blockquote> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Nebo said that for the first time in recent past, the country had been on an average of 4,500MW, including the about 300MW of spilling reserve which is meant to ensure the regular reliability and stability of the grid.<br /><br />The minister boasted that the government was making progress in the power sector, although it might not be as rapidly as Nigerians expect.<br /><br /> He promised that the progress would be sustained.<br /><br />On the complaints by generation companies on their debts, the minister said arrangements were being made to ensure that they are paid as at when due.<br /><br />source: TodayNg</span></div> <div> <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> </div>

Expect stable power supply by October – Minister of Power

                   The Federal Government, Friday, said that the country will experience more stabilized power supply by  the beginning ...

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Federal Government may Cancel fixed charges- BPE BOSS

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="story-featured-image" style="border: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); float: left; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-right: 15px; width: 368px;"> <img alt="Director General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Benjamin Ezra Dikki" class="attachment-bigstoryimage" height="225" scale="0" src="http://www.punchng.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/DG-BPE-Benjamin-Dikki-360x225.jpg" style="border: none; float: left; margin-right: 10px; padding: 4px;" width="360" /><div class="featured-image-caption" style="clear: both; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 5px; padding: 5px 10px 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Director General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Benjamin Ezra Dikki</span></div> </div> <div id="nrelate_flyout_placeholder"> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mr. Benjamin Dikki, has said that the fixed charge currently being paid by electricity consumers in the country will be dispensed with as soon as power generation increases to an economically sustainable level.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Dikki said this during a live/phone-in radio programme, Radio Link on <em>Radio Nigeria</em>, in Abuja.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">According to him, the fixed charge is a temporary measure.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The BPE boss said the country had an installed power generation capacity of 6,000 megawatts but was generating only about 3,000MW to 4,000MW.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Dikki, in a statement made available by the BPE on Wednesday, said revenues from the 3,000MW were not sufficient to support the power infrastructure.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“When power generation increases, the fixed charge will go,” he added.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He said the charge was the initial sacrifice consumers had to make given the huge financial investment made by the new investors in the power sector, who had yet to make adequate returns on their investments.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On complaints of non-availability of electricity meters, the BPE helmsman said the government was addressing the issue, as the Presidency had approved N33bn low interest intervention fund to support the power distribution companies to buy meters and other accessories.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He pointed out that Nigeria currently required three million meters yearly.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Dikki debunked claims of lack of transparency in the privatisation of the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company and the picture created of a conflict between Geometrics Power Group and Interstate Electrics Limited, the core investor in the Enugu Distribution Company.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On the KEDC, he said the reserved bidder could only be invited to step in if the preferred bidder failed to pay up the bid price.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He added that the preferred bidder was within the time limit to pay the 75 per cent balance of the bid price after the initial payment of 25 per cent had been made.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The DG said it was wrong for anybody to call for the revocation of the sale as the process had to be completed before the reversion to the reserved bidder could be made.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On Geometrics, Dikki explained that it had a 20-year contract with the Enugu Distribution Company to supply power to the Aba and Ariaria districts, which was not in contention.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Both parties are aware of this but it baffles me when people go out to deliberately distort the facts. We don’t understand the hue and cry that Geometrics is short-changed in the transaction,” he added.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The DG noted that the Bureau intended to focus on the transport sector in the next phase of the privatisation exercise as the sector was contributing about 30 per cent to the cost of doing business in the country.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">-Source: Punch</span></div> <div> <br /></div> </div> </div>

Federal Government may Cancel fixed charges- BPE BOSS

Director General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Benjamin Ezra Dikki The Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mr. Benjamin ...

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FG adds 370m gas supply to generate 5,000MW by December

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In a bid to address the shortfall of electricity supply being experienced in the country, the Federal Government has developed short term intervention strategy to add 370mmcf/d gas supply that will push up power generation capacity to 5,000 megawatts within the next five months.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This step is under a new cross sectoral approach conceived by the Ministries of Petroleum Resources, Power, National Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and other stakeholders to address inadequate electricity supply.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />The new target of 5,000 MW is however a shortfall from the earlier projected 6000MW which Federal Government targets to achieve by December.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Addressing a joint press conference, yesterday, in Abuja, to unveil the new development, the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alision-Madueke, said the CBN would pay off N25 billion legacy debt owed to gas suppliers in order to restore confidence to stakeholders.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The minister said the government had resolved to find a lasting solution to abysmal power supply in the country.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Diezani was assisted by the Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo, Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Managing Director of PPMC, Mr. David Ige, Chairman of NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi and the new Group Managing Director of NNPC, Joseph Dawha, as well as other stakeholders.</span></div> <br /></div>

FG adds 370m gas supply to generate 5,000MW by December

In a bid to address the shortfall of electricity supply being experienced in the country, the Federal Government has developed short term ...

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Potato power: the spuds that could light the world

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="lead-image" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img alt="(Thinkstock)" itemprop="image" src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/624_351/images/live/p0/1l/fn/p01lfnn2.jpg" style="border: 0px;" /></span><div class="lead-image-caption" style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">(Thinkstock)</span></div> </div> <div class="body clearfix" style="clear: both; zoom: 1;"> <div class="description" itemprop="description" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">With a simple trick, the humble spud can be made into a battery, so could potato powered homes catch on?</span></div> <aside class="related-articles small-icon" style="border-top-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 3px; float: left; margin: 0px 16px 16px 0px; width: 144px;"><h3 style="margin: 11px 0px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Related</span></span></h3> <article style="border-bottom-style: none; margin-bottom: 16px; padding-bottom: 0px;"><div class="image-container" style="margin-bottom: 3px; position: relative;"> <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131029-apps-that-answer-crisis-calls" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;"><img alt="Emergencies inspire new apps to answer crisis calls" height="81" src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/144_81/images/live/p0/1k/jj/p01kjj95.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="144" /></span></a></div> <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131029-apps-that-answer-crisis-calls" style="font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><h5 style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="color: black;">Apps that answer crisis calls</span></h5> </a></article><article style="border-bottom-style: none; margin-bottom: 16px; padding-bottom: 0px;"><div class="image-container" style="margin-bottom: 3px; position: relative;"> <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131007-innovation-drive-that-went-social" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;"><img alt="Philippines: The innovation drive that turned social" height="81" src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/144_81/images/live/p0/1j/c2/p01jc2mm.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="144" /></span></a></div> <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131007-innovation-drive-that-went-social" style="font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><h5 style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="color: black;">Innovation drive that went social</span></h5> </a></article><article style="border-bottom-style: none; margin-bottom: 16px; padding-bottom: 0px;"><div class="image-container" style="margin-bottom: 3px; position: relative;"> <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130905-the-rise-of-bluetooth" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;"><img alt="Why Bluetooth use is on the rise" height="81" src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/144_81/images/live/p0/1g/5r/p01g5r04.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="144" /></span></a></div> <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130905-the-rise-of-bluetooth" style="font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><h5 style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="color: black;">The silent rise of Bluetooth</span></h5> </a></article><article style="border-bottom-style: none; margin-bottom: 16px; padding-bottom: 0px;"><div class="image-container" style="margin-bottom: 3px; position: relative;"> <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130822-smart-cards-that-top-up-health" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;"><img alt="Smart cards that top-up health" height="81" src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/144_81/images/live/p0/1f/kq/p01fkqm1.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="144" /></span></a></div> <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130822-smart-cards-that-top-up-health" style="font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><h5 style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="color: black;">Smart cards that top-up health</span></h5> </a></article><article style="border-bottom-style: none; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px;"><div class="image-container" style="margin-bottom: 3px; position: relative;"> <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130731-helping-the-deaf-to-see-sound" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;"><img alt="(Copyright: PA)" height="81" src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/144_81/images/live/p0/1d/j7/p01dj7hb.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="144" /></span></a></div> <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130731-helping-the-deaf-to-see-sound" style="font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><h5 style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="color: black;">Helping the deaf to ‘see’ sound</span></h5> </a></article></aside><div class="story-body" itemprop="articleBody" style="float: right; width: 464px;"> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Mashed, boiled, baked or fried? You probably have a preference for your potatoes. Haim Rabinowitch, however, likes his spuds “hacked”.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">For the past few years, researcher Rabinowitch and colleagues have been pushing the idea of “potato power” to deliver energy to people cut off from electricity grids. Hook up a spud to a couple of cheap metal plates, wires and LED bulbs, they argue, and it could provide lighting to remote towns and villages around the world.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">They’ve also discovered a simple but ingenious trick to make potatoes particularly good at producing energy. <strong>“</strong>A single potato can power enough LED lamps for a room for 40 days,” claims Rabinowitch, who is based at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The idea may seem absurd, yet it is rooted in sound science. Still, Rabinowitch and his team have discovered that actually launching potato power in the real world is much more complex than it first appears.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">While Rabinowitch and team have found a way to make potatoes produce more power than usual, the basic principles are taught in high school science classes, to demonstrate how batteries work.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">To make a battery from organic material, all you need is two metals – an anode, which is the negative electrode, such as zinc, and a cathode, the positively charged electrode, such as copper. The acid inside the potato forms a chemical reaction with the zinc and copper, and when the electrons flow from one material to another, energy is released.<strong> </strong><br />This was discovered by Luigi Galvani in 1780 when he connected two metals to the legs of a frog, causing its muscles to twitch. But you can put many materials between these two electrodes to get the same effect. Alexander Volta, around the time of Galvani, used saltwater-soaked paper. Others have made “earth batteries” using two metal plates and a pile of dirt, or a bucket of water.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Super spuds</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Potatoes are often the preferred vegetable of choice for teaching high school science students these principles. Yet to the surprise of Rabinowitch, no one had scientifically studied spuds as an energy source. So in 2010, he decided to give it a try, along with PhD student Alex Goldberg, and Boris Rubinsky of the University of California, Berkeley.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“We looked at 20 different types of potatoes,” explains Goldberg, “and we looked at their internal resistance, which allows us to understand how much energy was lost by heat.”</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">They found that by simply boiling the potatoes for eight minutes, it broke down the organic tissues inside the potatoes, reducing resistance and allowing for freer movement of electrons– thus producing more energy. They also increased the energy output by slicing the potato into four or five pieces, each sandwiched by a copper and zinc plate, to make a series. “We found we could improve the output 10 times, which made it interesting economically, because the cost of energy drops down,” says Goldberg.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It’s low voltage energy,” says Rabinowitch, “but enough to construct a battery that could charge mobile phones or laptops in places where there is no grid, no power connection.”</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Their cost analyses suggested that a single boiled potato battery with zinc and copper electrodes generates portable energy at an estimated $9 per kilowatt hour, which is 50-fold cheaper than a typical 1.5 volt AA alkaline cell or D cell battery, which can cost $49–84 per kilowatt hour. It’s also an estimated six times cheaper than standard kerosene lamps used in the developing world.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Which raises an important question – why isn’t the potato battery already a roaring success?</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In 2010, the world produced a staggering 324,181,889 tonnes of potatoes. They are the world’s number one non-grain crop, in 130 countries, and a hefty source of starch for billions around the world. They are cheap, store easily, and last for a long time.<br /><strong><br /></strong>With 1.2 billion people in the world lacking access to electricity, a simple potato could be the answer– or so the researchers thought. “We thought organisations would be interested,” says Rabinowitch. “We thought politicians in India would give them out with their names inscribed on them. They cost less than a dollar.”<br /><strong><br /></strong>Yet three years on since their experiment, why haven’t governments, companies or organisations embraced potato batteries? “The simple answer is they don’t even know about it,” reasons Rabinowitch. But it may be more complicated than that.<strong><br /></strong><br />First, there’s the issue of using a food for energy. Olivier Dubois, senior natural resources officer at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), says that using food for energy – like sugar cane for biofuels – must avoid depleting food stocks and competing with farmers.<br /><strong><br /></strong>“You first need to look at: are there enough potatoes to eat? Then, are we not competing with farmers making income from selling potatoes?” he explains. “So if eating potatoes is covered, selling potatoes is covered, and there’s some potatoes left, then yes, it can work”<br /><strong><br /></strong>In a country like Kenya, the potato is the second most important food for families after maize. Smallholder farmers produced around 10 million tonnes of potatoes this year, yet around 10-20% were lost in post-harvest waste due to lack of access to markets, poor storage conditions, and other issues, according to Elmar Schulte–Geldermann, potato science leader for sub–Saharan Africa at the International Potato Center in Nairobi, Kenya. The potatoes that don’t make it to the market could easily be turned into batteries. <strong><br /></strong><strong><br />Pithy answer</strong></span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Yet in Sri Lanka, for instance, the locally available potatoes are rare and expensive. So a team of scientists at the University of Kelaniya recently decided to try the experiment with something more widely available, and free – plantain piths (stems).</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Physicist KD Jayasuriya and his team found that the boiling technique produced a similar efficiency increase for plantains – and the best battery performance was obtained by chopping the plantain pith after boiling.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">With the boiled piths, they found they could power a single LED for more than 500 hours, provided it is prevented from drying out. “I think the potato has slightly better current, but the plantain pith is free, it’s something we throw away,” says Jayasuriya.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Despite all this, some are sceptical of the feasibility of potato power. “In reality, the potato battery is essentially like a regular battery you’d buy at the store,” says Derek Lovley at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. “It’s just using a different matrix.” While the potato helps to prevent energy being lost to heat, it is not the source of the energy – that’s actually extracted via the corrosion of the zinc. “It’s sacrificial – the metal is degrading over time,” says Lovley. This means you’d have to replace the zinc – and of course the potato or plantain pith – over time.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Still, zinc is quite cheap in most developing countries. And Jayasuriya argues that it could still be more cost effective than a kerosene lamp. A zinc electrode that lasts about five months would cost about the same as a litre of kerosene, which fuels the average family home in Sri Lanka for two days. You could also use other electrodes, like magnesium or iron.<br /><strong><br /></strong>But potato advocates must surmount another problem before their idea catches on: consumer perception of potatoes. Compared with modern technologies like solar power, potatoes are perhaps less desirable as an energy source.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Gaurav Manchanda, founder of One Degree Solar, which sells micro-solar home systems in Kenya, says people buy their products for more reasons than efficiency and price. “These are all consumers at the end of the day. They need to see the value in it, not only in terms of performance, but status,” he explains. Basically, some people might not want to show off their potato battery to impress a neighbor.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Still, it cannot be denied that the potato battery idea works, and it appears cheap. Advocates of potato power will no doubt continue to keep chipping away.</span></div> <div> <br /></div> </div> </div> </div>

Potato power: the spuds that could light the world

(Thinkstock) With a simple trick, the humble spud can be made into a battery, so could potato powered homes catch on? Related A...

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