Like creating a miniature volcano using paper mâché and a careful mixture of white vinegar and baking soda, making a battery out of a potato is a quintessential school science experiment. Centuries after its discovery as an effective conductor of electricity, researchers from the University of Jerusalem in Israel are saying the potato battery can be more than a trivial kid’s science project.

Haim Rabinowitch and research student Alex Goldberg, together with Boris Rubinsky at the University of California at Berkeley, found that by simply boiling the slice of potato before inserting zinc and copper electrodes into it, the battery can generate 10 times as much electricity as a regular potato battery. It also enabled the battery to work for days or even weeks.

This discovery can have a significant impact on the developing world. As the world’s top non-grain starch food commodity, potatoes are produced in 130 countries over a wide range of climates, making them available all year round. They are also cheap, have long shelf life and do not require refrigeration for storage. According to the researchers, these attributes make potatoes an ideal source of energy for developing countries.

Boiled potato batteries can produce electricity that is nearly half the output of AA batteries at a cost that that is 5-50 times cheaper. Unlike kerosene lamps, which are the typical light source of many remote communities in the developing world, potato batteries are also a sustainable energy resource, leaving no by-products that can be harmful to the environment.

With such simple, economical innovations as the potato battery, we can help provide power to those in need. Modern-day comforts, such as electricity and long-distance communication can be made available even to remote areas where power lines have no reach. Many lives are sure to change for the better.