The world produces more than 360 million tonnes of potatoes every year. However, can some of this be used for more than just making a tasty bite to eat? Yes, in fact your average potato can produce enough electricity to light a small bulb. However, that was it until Haim Rabinowitch’s research group at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem found an easy way to increase their voltage output by more than 10 times.

Simply by boiling your average potato for eight minutes or so its internal resistance reduces drastically, allowing current to flow more easily through the potato. To get the electricity flowing you will need a positive and a negative connection to the potato. To achieve this, use a galvanised nail (rust-free nails, easily found from a local ironmonger; this is a copper nail with a zinc coating) and a copper nail (available in most home toolboxes). As the electrons flow from the zinc coating to the copper nail electrical energy is released from the potato.

Now that the power source is ready, all you need to do it connect this to an LED bulb (other bulbs also work but LEDs work best since they work at low current). Using wires with alligator clips (also available from your local ironmonger) connect the potato battery to the bulb and the bulb should shine away!

Another way to increase the power output from the potato is to cut it into smaller pieces and connect each piece in the same way that the bulb was connected, that is, with alligator clip wires.

Under ideal conditions these researchers found that a single potato can light an average room for around 40 days given some trivial modifications to the set-up. This work may lead to new ways to bring electricity to the more remote areas around the world.

For more information access www.bbc.com/future/story/20131112-potato-power-to-light-the-world.