Andalucian entrepreneurs create device that can harvest electricity from plants

THREE Andalucian entrepreneurs have taken biotechnology to potty new lengths with a battery that recharges in soil.

Pablo Manuel Vidarte, Rafael Rebollo and Javier Rodriguez’s Bioo converts energy created during photosynthesis in plants into electricity.

The device is a USB port hidden inside a stone that can be popped into a planter to harness energy from the soil and used to charge your phone – and that’s only one of many possible future applications.

Vidarte said: “We have used our prototypes until now to charge a mobile phone and now we are planning to sell them in a crowdfunding campaign. Our aim is not to raise a lot of money, now we just want the validation of a real market.”

The patented technology will first be tried out in Barcelona.