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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Revealed:Why Men Sleep Off After Sex

<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="sleeping husband" class="attachment-bigstoryimage" height="235" scale="0" src="http://www.punchng.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/sleeping-husband-360x235.jpg" style="border: none; float: left; margin-right: 10px; padding: 4px;" width="360" /></div> <div id="nrelate_flyout_placeholder"> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Some people have described sex as one of the sweetest things on earth, and even if it is stressful and requires a lot of strength to do, especially for men, it is a rigorous exercise many people would gladly undertake over and over again.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Though, it is no secret that many men nod off straight after sex, some women also sometimes feel sleepy after sex but the phenomenon seems more pronounced in men. To women, the obvious sign of complete ‘shutdown’ by men moments after a passionate encounter is practically frustrating, and could be accompanied with a loud buzz of snoring.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Scientists have given men the perfect excuse for feeling sleepy after sex: ‘they just cannot help themselves, and not that they are just selfish.’</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It is easy to think that men sleep off after sex because they are tired, but findings have shown that it goes beyond that. Scientists have said that men really do need to sleep after sex when they climax because their brains become flooded with sleep-inducing chemicals such as oxytocin, serotonin and prolactin.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Also, the blood rush after the climax depletes the muscles of energy-producing glycogen and because men typically have higher muscle density than women, they become more tired after sex.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In other words, the answer to the question, ‘why do men fall asleep after sex’ may be as simple as saying that they have very little control over their bodies at that point; hence, it literally shuts down.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">When a group of scientists led by a French Neuroscientist, Serge Stoleru, in a study scanned some men’s brains before and during orgasm, they found that the cerebral cortex, which is the ‘thinking’ area, shuts down almost immediately after orgasm. After this, two other areas, the cingulate cortex and amygdale direct the rest of the brain to deactivate from sexual desire.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Stoleru, whose research was published in the Journal Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews, said the human brain is involved in all the successive steps of sexual behaviour.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Also, neuroimaging scans show that, after orgasm, men tend to experience decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain associated with consciousness, information processing, mental activity and responding appropriately. This, according to scientists, helps to explain why men feel sleepy after sex.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As this happens, a surge of chemicals such as oxytocin and serotonin flood the brain creating a powerful sleep-inducing effect while reducing stress levels, boosting relaxation and sleepiness.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">To take it further, when prolactin chemical associated with feeling satisfied is released into a man’s system during orgasm; it is likely that it causes the man to feel sleepy, which further explains why men feel sleepier after intercourse than after masturbation. However, previous research showed that men who have lower prolactin are less tired and tend to feel less sleepy after sex.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Stoleru added, “After men have an orgasm they usually experience a refractory period when they cannot be aroused, while women don’t seem to have such a strong refractory period and may be asking for more or some intimate attention when their partners just want a rest.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A businesswoman, Mrs. Oni Juliet, said she had been wondering why her husband slept after sex adding that she expected more from him, being a young man.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">She said, “Most of the time, he sleeps off shortly, or even almost immediately after he reaches orgasm, while I would be left hanging, longing for him to hold or kiss me. But he would just be beside me, like someone who has shut down completely. It could be frustrating, you know.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Really, I expect more from him because we are still both very young. He deflowered me on our wedding night, I have not had any experience before now, but I find it very disturbing. Once he goes for first round, he knocks out, and the next thing is to start snoring.”</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A Director of Sleep at the University of Surrey, United Kingdom, Dr Neil Stanley, said as frustrating as it is for most women that their male partners just roll over and fall asleep after sex, men are not completely at fault and are not entirely to blame. “Humans are the only animals in which sleep and sex are linked and while often seen as just a poor excuse, there are scientific reasons why men feel tired after sex,” she said.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">More reasons it could be wrong timing to hope to have a conversation with your man after sex, because you may as well be talking to yourself.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Some reviewers of the study said a constructive way to tackle the problem could be for wives to express their distress to their husbands and ask if they could try to dedicate few minutes after making love to them. Another could be to have sex outside the bedroom, possibly earlier in the day, maybe in the bathroom, having glasses of their favourite drink by the tub to make the experience more sensual.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">However, one thing is for females to get used to it, because it is not likely to change anytime soon. In fact, it could be worse in some cases because a recent survey of 10,000 English men revealed that 48 per cent actually fall asleep during sex, so, be grateful if he falls asleep after, and not during sex.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A Consultant Psychologist, Prof. Toba Elegbeleye, said sex takes a lot of energy to complete and that there is tendency for the brain and the entire system to want to rest when such intense energy is exhibited. He cautioned that where the sexual activity took place also determined if the sleep would be possible or not.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He said, “When you indulge in sex, which usually takes place at night when people sleep naturally, it comes with a level of intensity that involves all your energy and whatever you can muster to make it have a shaking effect, after which the multi-nerve ends are relaxed. This makes people sleep easily.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It also depends on where you do it. Usually, if it is a legal encounter, which takes place in your own bedroom where you are comfortable, you might sleep, which is different from when you do it in your car or somewhere else under duress, that is not so comfortable.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Another factor that could aid sleeping well after sex is eating good food prior to the act because you may not be able to do it well if you are hungry and the body entertains only one urge at a time and hunger is as strong an urge and a drive as sex is. Other factors could be to have a pleasant room atmosphere with a good bed and if there is no thought of threatening financial burden or security issues in mind.”</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A Clinical Psychologist, Mr. Femi Agberotimi, said there are certain physiological reactions during and after sex that occur in both genders that have been identified to induce/enhance sleep.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“The neurotransmitter dopamine, released during orgasm triggers a stress-reducing, sleep-inducing response that may last up to two hours. Hormones such as Oxytocin and Prolactin which are released in a much quantity during sex than in the usual state have also been identified to enhance sleep because of the good feelings they produce.</span></div> <div style="padding: 0px 0px 5px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Other physiological changes that occur during sex which could translate to getting tired and falling into sleep include the increase in heart rate, respiration and blood pressure as well as changes in the muscle tone which could put the body in the same state with someone who ran 100meter race,” he added.</span></div> <div> <br /></div> </div> </div>

Revealed:Why Men Sleep Off After Sex

Some people have described sex as one of the sweetest things on earth, and even if it is stressful and requires a lot of strength to do...

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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; 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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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