Remember When We Had Infrastructure Problems?

Well, the infrastructure problems still exist.  While over the weekend we had problems with our phone lines, today was a day of electricity outages.  We lost power from about 9am to 2pm, and then again around 4pm, we lost it til 7:30.  That’s pretty frustrating.  Usually, we endure three to four outages a day, each lasting about 20 minutes.  Eight non-powered hours was a bit of a drag.

The real reason I’m writing this post, however, is to highlight  this breakthrough research from a bunch of Israeli scientists:

Researchers in Jerusalem have just announced they’ve developed super simple, sustainable, organic electric batteries which are powered by treated potatoes. Their findings have just been published in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, and detail uses of the batteries in the developing world where infrastructure is lacking. The apparently highly efficient battery is made from zinc and copper electrodes and a potato slice which has been boiled. The act of boiling the potato increased the electric power around 10 fold in comparison to an untreated potato, giving it power for days, and sometimes weeks depending on the conditions. The potato batteries are also, of course, way cheaper than regular commercial cells. The technology has officially been made available free of charge to the developing world.

I’d like to take this moment to recommend to Azerbaijan that instead of relying on their seemingly unbounded oil and gas resources, they should focus on the wealth of potatoes they produce to provide power for their people.  Cəlilabad and western Azerbaijan are known for potato production, so why not take advantage of it.  That way, we can stop relying on the terrible infrastructure that shoddily provides our electricity and gas.

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