Getting electricity has always been a problem for the 173 people living in Nuevo Saposoa, a small village in Peru, South America. However, things went from bad to worse in March 2015 after heavy rains broke the only power cables (电缆线) in the area. The villagers were forced to use oil lamps (灯)，which are not only expensive but also dangerous because of the harmful gases (气体) they produce.
Luckily, researchers at the University of Technology (UT) in Lima, Peru heard about their problem and found a wonderful solution. They made a new lamp that can be powered by plants and soil (土壤)，both of which can be easily found in the Amazonian rainforest where the village lies. The lamp takes energy from a plant growing in a wooden box and uses it to light up an LED light bulb (灯泡).
While that may sound amazing and even impossible, the science behind the ideas is quite simple. As plants create their food, they also produce waste which they return to the soil. Small animals in the soil eat this waste and they produce electrons (电荷). The UT team put special sticks inside the soil to get the energy and keep it in the lamp for later use.
The university gave ten Plant Lamps to the villagers of Nuevo Saposoa several years ago. So far, they have been a huge success! Elmer Ramirez, the UT professor who invented the lamp, believes the Plant Lamp can keep helping to improve the lives of many people, especially small rainforest communities, 42% of whom have no electricity.
