Ever wonder why Swamp Thing or Man-Thing are so strong? That’s just a combination of industrial accidents and magic. However, it looks like real moss might be just as powerful as the heroes made of it.
Solar power still hasn’t gotten us where it has promised it would, but there are more and more interesting solutions using the sun coming out all the time. While I’ve been sitting here waiting for cheap, effective photo-voltaic paint to cover my car and home, it turns out that all I had to do was look at the north side of a tree.
The new idea comes to us from designer Elena Mitrofanova. She has created a “living wall” that generates electricity by harvesting the leftover energy created from photosynthesis. She calls the process “Moss Voltaics” and it combines live plants with “architectural elements to create a clean energy system.”
Amazingly, Elena is still working on her post graduate degree at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, and the project is her thesis.
While she used moss for her prototype, she has high hopes that the project could be scaled up to help urban areas by switching over to algae.
Right now, one section of moss doesn’t provide much power, but you can see through the below chart how easily the modular system can be adapted to handle larger electronics.
Moss Voltaics from Elena Mitro on Vimeo.
