A ground-breaking study shows that plants can generate electricity that varies according to their circadian rhythms, opening up new possibilities for environmentally sustainable energy production. Credits: Aniruddha Guha, edited
New research has revealed that the hydraulic systems of plants generate a continuous electrical potential in accordance with their circadian rhythms, presenting innovative opportunities for sustainable energy production.
When plants draw water from their roots to feed their stems and leaves, they produce electrical potential that could be used as a renewable energy source. However, like all living things, plants are subject to a circadian rhythm – a biological clock that cycles through day and night and affects biological processes. In plants, this daily cycle involves capturing light energy for photosynthesis and absorbs water and nutrients from the soil during the day, and slows down growth processes at night.
Study on the electrical potential of factories
In a new study published this week in Fluid physicsby AIP Publishing, researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur have detailed how biological processes produce tension in plants and the effect of day-night cycles on that tension.
“This flow potential, essentially due to the natural energy captured in the plant, offers a renewable energy source that is continuous and can be sustained over long periods of time,” said author Suman Chakraborty. “The question we wanted to answer was what potential can it produce and how does the plant’s biological clock affect the electrical potential?

Plant hydraulics drives a biological process that moves fluids from the roots to the stems and leaves of plants, creating a continuous electrical potential or voltage. This study scrutinized voltage differences caused by ion concentrations, ion species, and pH-values of the plant transport fluid, linking voltage changes to the plant’s circadian rhythm that causes day-night adaptations. According to the authors, this generation of cyclic and coherent tension could be used as a source of energy. Credits: Aniruddha Guha
Methodology and findings
To find out, the authors inserted electrodes into water hyacinth stems and attached electrode reservoirs to pieces of happy bamboo to closely examine how the electrical potential changes depending on the type of ion, ion concentration, and pH of the fluid circulating in the plants. .
“Our eureka moment was when our first experiments showed that it was possible to produce electricity in a cyclical rhythm and the exact connection between that and the daily rhythm inherent in the plant,” said Chakraborty. “We could pinpoint how this relates to water transpiration and the ions that the plant transports through the rising sap. »
The study quantified the voltage response resulting from the movement of ions through plant pathways that are uniquely aligned with the plant’s daily rhythms.
Potential for sustainable energy renewal
The authors discovered that plants can actively moderate the flow of liquid or sap in accordance with day and night cycles. They also found that the electrical potential of the flow increases with decreasing ion concentration or increasing pH in the liquid.
“Not only have we rediscovered the electrical rhythm of the plant, articulating it in terms of voltages and currents, but we have also provided insight into the possibility of harnessing the power generation of plants in a sustainable way, without impacting the environment and without disrupting the ecosystem,” said Chakraborty. .
“The results could help in the development of nature-inspired biomimetic systems capable of responding to the global energy crisis with an ecological and sustainable solution in which tree planting not only mitigates the crisis of climate change and environmental degradation, but also provides a means of harnessing electrical energy.”