
- Founded
- 2024
- Employees*
- 3
- Funding to Date*
- $675,000
- Website
- www.bactery.co.uk
The $10 billion precision agriculture industry is struggling to power the millions of sensors it needs to improve crop yields, reduce costs, and support food security amidst climate change. Farms are usually remote and lacking in energy infrastructure, but sensors reliant on single-use batteries or solar systems are prohibitively expensive because they require maintenance. Someone has to replace dead batteries and clean dust off the solar panels.
UK-based Bactery has developed a battery system that draws electricity from natural bacteria as they break down organics in agricultural soils, releasing electrons. In one year, a single Bactery can generate the amount of energy stored in ten AA batteries—double what a typical sensor requires. The low-profile device sits submerged almost entirely underground, safely out of the way, and requires no additional infrastructure or maintenance. Bactery calculates that its units, built to work for over 25 years, are 5,000 times less expensive than solar units over their lifetimes. And like solar, they generate zero carbon emissions during use.
Drs. Jakub Dziegielowski, Mirella Di Lorenzo, and Benjamin Metcalfe, co-founders of Bactery, have collaborated at the University of Bath for over five years and are considered the world’s top researchers in soil electricity generation. They’ve shown that a Bactery could, eventually, produce up to 4 watts per square meter of soil, promising a future where one-quarter of an average U.S. lot can power an entire home.