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Tapping Trees for Electricity?

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the dc-tree dept.

dr_agonfly writes "Despite many skeptics, a Massachusetts company is getting investor interest in developing a process to tap electric power from trees. MagCap is looking to boost the current power from just under 2 volts to a more useful 12 volts with investor funding." From the article: "Jim Manwell, director of the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Renewable Energy Resource Laboratory, questioned the potential of MagCap's plans. 'I'm wildly skeptical,' he said. 'I would need to see proof before I believed it. It strikes me as pretty questionable for a number of reasons.'"

8 of 392 comments (clear)

  1. Let's just get them out of the way... by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 5, Funny

    • Imagne how much power a beowulf cluster of these trees will deliver!
    • In Soviet Russia, trees plug into YOU!
    • In Korea, only old trees produce electricity.
    • I, for one, welcome our electric tree overlords.
    • ...but will the trees run Linux?
    • All your trees are belong to us.

    --
    ____

    ~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey

    1. Re:Let's just get them out of the way... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      You forgot the most obvious one:

      Comes with Sony Rootkit(TM) pre-installed !

    2. Re:Let's just get them out of the way... by merreborn · · Score: 5, Funny

      Ironically, the "Let's get the cliches out of the way" post has become a cliche.

    3. Re:Let's just get them out of the way... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Ironically, the "Let's get the cliches out of the way" post has become a cliche.

      And in time, so will pointing it out.

    4. Re:Let's just get them out of the way... by thegoofy · · Score: 5, Funny

      Thanks for taking all the +5 funny mods you ash...

      I can see the headlines now... "Tree's Providing Power! Elm at 11"

      This is serious business, it's nothing to Oak about...

      Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "Root access"

      I bet the investors will feel like Saps if it fails...

    5. Re:Let's just get them out of the way... by Meumeu · · Score: 5, Funny

      And the cliché will still be modded +5 Funny.

  2. Re:Could we see this is the future? by robyannetta · · Score: 5, Funny
    Broadband over electric trees?

    Yes, but they won't be running TCP/IP. They're be running Banyan Vines.

    [ducks]

    --
    - Just my $0.02, take with a grain of salt, your mileage may vary.
  3. Re:Long way to go yet... by winkydink · · Score: 5, Funny

    so we can all walk around with extension cords hanging off our arms?

    That's not where they'll put the cord.

    --

    "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey