- September 04, 2026
- By Chris Carroll
- Photos by Evan Krape
MASSIVE HILLTOP TURBINES harvesting the wind or black photovoltaic panels soaking up sun on rooftops no longer seem very novel—but what about a device that creates clean energy by scarfing up microscopic seafood?
That’s what UMD environmental science and technology Professor Stephanie Lansing and her multi-institutional team built and sank beneath the waves of the Delaware Bay in July. It’s part of a $7.8 million project funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to create offshore electricity for communications equipment, sensors and other low-power devices without extending cables from ships or land.
Lansing (left), a renewable energy expert who previously derived green fuels from animal waste and garbage, says we shouldn’t discount the oceans that cover 70% of our planet as a power source.
The device known as PODPower sucks up plankton and other organic matter with a funnel modeled after fish gills. The mixture is fermented and then fed into a microbial fuel cell, where bacteria feeding on the organic goo shed electrons. The team’s test version is designed to put out at least 10 watts; 100-watt versions are up next.
“We’ve taken things we learned how to do from working with farms and food waste, and put it under the sea,” she says.
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