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People Fixing The World

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Discover the people and the projects trying to make the world a better place

Discover the people and the projects trying to make the world a better place.

Discover the people and the projects trying to make the world a better place.

A weekly programme looking at common challenges around the world and the creative ways people are trying to tackle them.

Presenter Myra Anubi speaks to reporters, experts and innovators to investigate how effective different solutions are, share their successes and inspire listeners with what is possible.

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People Fixing The World: Electricity that grows on trees

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Electricity that grows on trees

19/05/2020 GMT

BBC World Service - People Fixing The World, Electricity that grows on trees

Scientists are trying to tap unlikely-sounding energy sources - like the leaves on trees.

We examine three unlikely-sounding, natural sources of energy - the leaves on trees, the water where rivers meet the sea and hot rocks nearly 5km underground.

Scientists in Italy have discovered that trees generate an electrical charge every time the wind blows strongly enough to make their leaves touch one another.

The researchers, from the Italian Institute of Technology, have managed to harvest enough energy this way to power 150 LED lights from a single leaf.

We meet them, and others, who are trying to make use of untapped, natural sources energy. 

We hear from a project trying to produce electricity from the interaction of fresh and salt water where rivers meet the sea.

And we talk to a geologist in Iceland, who’s helped dig nearly 5km beneath the surface of the Earth. At that depth, the temperature can be about 600C - the idea is to mine the heat and turn it into energy.
 
Producer/Reporter: Daniel Gordon
Picture: Getty Images

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