The Dirt Battery

Almost 2 billion people have no access to electricity. Solar power has become more common in the past 20 years, but it can’t be active 24 hours a day or in cold climates. Hugo Van Vuuren and his colleagues at Harvard University wanted to develop a new energy source usable anytime, anywhere. They revived an 80-year-old idea, combined it with a type of equipment available all across the planet, and developed a battery powered by the microbes in dirt.