Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a beautiful, elegant tree in the heart of your city which would allow you to charge your cell-phone, mp3 player or digital camera, one which could function as a street-light at night and could also generate solar energy? Well this is what Solar trees are all about.
Here is a list of some striking Solar tree sculptures:
1. Solar tree by Ross Lovegrove
The beautiful and ecofriendly ‘Solar tree’ by renowned designer Ross Lovegrove helps to bring a slice of nature into the grayness of urban environments. Designed for the Museum for Angewandte Kunst in Vienna, this was the first solar tree in the city to provide a street-lighting system powered by solar energy. Artemide, the leading Italian specialist for innovative lighting, in collaboration with Sharp Solar, the global market leader for solar cells has engineered the lighting for this solar tree.
2. Solar tree by Gurdeep Sandhu
Designed by Gurdeep Sandhu, this energy-efficient solar tree can be easily installed in your backyard or on your roof taking up minimal space. The adjustable and movable solar panels ensure maximum solar energy. At night you can simply fold it up to reduce changes of damages. An added advantage is that the panels can be upgraded in accordance with the latest photovoltaic technology.
3. SonUmbra by Loop.pH
SonUmbra by Loop.pH is an interactive solar-powered tree which was unveiled at the London design festival. Its branches are composed of light-emitting strands which light up in the dark. The SonUmbra is powered by a PV-equipped canopy which harnesses sunlight during daytime and stores it to light up the tree at night. A unique feature of the tree is that it greets a visitor with an interplay of light and sound, encouraging interaction.
4. Solarflora by Darren Saravis
Solarflora, designed by California-based Darren Saravis, the founder of Nectar design is a solar-powered tree intended for use at public places like parks, museums, bus-stops, fairgrounds and others. Solarflora, sculptured in the form of a flowering plant can hold upto 4 solar panels and can supply 750 Watt-hours of electric energy in a day.
5. Solar Forest concept from Neville Mars
This wonderful concept from Neville Mars consists of trees with photovoltaic leaves to harness solar energy. The trunk of the trees consists of power outlets, which are used to charge electric vehicles. The photovoltaic leaves also provide shade to the cars.
6. The Helios Power tree by Oscar G. Torres
Designed by Oscar G. Torres, the Helios Power tree features thin solar cells as leaves which are connected via a network that runs through the branches and trunk to a large battery installed at the base of the tree. There is a USB hub installed at the base which allows you to charge your gadgets using the solar energy.
7. Photosynthesis Solar tree
Designed in the shape of a tiny bonsai-tree by Paris-based designer Vivien Mueller, the photosynthesis solar tree features upto 54 mini-photovoltaic cells which absorb the sun’s energy. This energy is stored into a battery which you can use to charge your gadgets. The tree consists of several rotating modules which can be arranged to obtain different shapes.
8. Solar Mallee trees
The mallee-tree shaped solar trees were built as a part of Adelaide’s Green-city program.The solar trees are equipped with solar panels on top which provide lighting around the area. Each tree produces 864 kWatt-hour of energy per year used for night lighting, while the excess power is returned to the electricity grid.
9. Solar Sunflowers
The Solar Sunflowers in Texas are set up by an art team called Harries/Heder. The flower-like photovoltaic panels absorb the sun’s energy to produce renewable energy used to power the installation’s blue LED lights at night. The Solar sunflowers also provide shade to the pedestrians.
10. Boston Tree-pod
The Boston tree-pod, designed by France’s Influx studio in collaboration with Shift Boston is a solar-powered tree which, besides harnessing the sun’s energy also helps to reduce pollution by converting carbon-dioxide into oxygen. The solar panels are supported by wide branches and umbrella-styled tops.