New Delhi: Japanese product designer Satoshi Nakagawa has developed a method that generates small electrical currents from everyday materials including food, soil, compost, drinks, construction debris and microplastics.
“As the population moves towards 10 billion, energy issues will become just as critical as food issues,” he said in an interview with AFP. Talking about the growing demand for electricity in the data sector with the rise of AI, he noted that his innovation, micropower collection (MPC), is a small contribution to the growing demand for electricity.
“Even if it’s just a small contribution, I want people to be able to produce their own electricity using the soil around them.”
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Charging bulbs with bread
The MPC system operates on the same principle as the voltaic pile invented by Alessandro Volta in 1800. Electrodes of zinc and copper are inserted into moist or ion-containing substances. The resulting electrochemical reaction produces a continuous low-level current.
Nakagawa operates two demonstration sites in Hitachi-ota, Ibaraki Prefecture. The Ku-An facility uses 1,500 wooden boxes of soil and compost to power approximately 800 LEDs. The nearby Lu-An facility, opened in 2025, uses about 2,000 plastic cylinders of soil and compost to generate roughly 100 watts, sufficient to operate a rice cooker and similar low-power appliances.
Demonstrations have shown the method working with items such as bread, potatoes and wine to light small LEDs or support limited device charging.
Nakagawa states the technology could support off-grid locations, post-disaster power needs and low-energy sensors for agricultural monitoring, flood detection or security.
“We are currently researching drawing small amounts of electricity from soil, from construction debris or from microplastics, which could in some way contribute to a world with no blackouts,” he noted.
Once installed, the systems produce no carbon dioxide and are not dependent on weather conditions.
He acknowledged the output is limited but argues it could contribute to local energy self-sufficiency.
The AFP report notes that while Nakagawa’s products are aesthetically pleasing, his system is not practical. According to experts, the currents remain too small for most practical uses without large arrays and the primary energy source is the metal electrodes rather than the organic materials, which mainly serve as electrolytes.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)