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Solar Tree Bears Fruit

Posted by Soulskill on from the functional-art dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "A prototype solar tree that recently went on display on a busy street in Vienna, Austria has passed a key test by providing light during the night-time even when the sun had been blocked by clouds for four days in a row. The branches of the solar tree were decorated with 10 solar lamps, each one powered by 36 solar cells. The tree included rechargeable batteries and electronic systems to measure the amount of light in the atmosphere and trigger the solar lamps to go on. 'Not just trees but other objects could be decorated with solar cells and so keep streets well lit at night time,' said Christina Werner from Cultural Project Management. Google uses a similar concept to light their parking lots with 3,000 solar panels that provide up to 10 percent of the Googleplex's power demand. We discussed Google's solar initiative last year."

7 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. The question is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How much non-renewable energy does it take to produce each solar tree?

    1. Re:The question is... by Adambomb · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What i'd want to know is how many existing street lamps could just have struts affixed to the sides to allow more attachment points for the PV cells and lighting on their own? Why does it have to be a single new unit to begin with.

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      Ice Cream has no bones.
    2. Re:The question is... by jacquesm · · Score: 2, Insightful

      you should also factor in the disposal costs of the batteries, that probably is the largest factor.

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      MP3 Search Engine
    3. Re:The question is... by MindStalker · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You also need to factor in the public safety benefit of it working even if the electricity is out. A whole city that stays lit up during a disaster could be very beneficial.

  2. Solar Electric Baobab Tree by G4from128k · · Score: 3, Insightful

    With a few minor changes, this "tree" could collect the rain water that runs off the solar panel and store it in its "trunk." Then, it would slowly release the water during the night to water the plants around the base of the tree. The result would save water and create a literally greener environment.

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    Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
    1. Re:Solar Electric Baobab Tree by turgid · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Firstly, the water that reaches the soil when it's raining mostly flows over the surface and into drains. If it were stored and released slowly, it would be more effective at watering the plants since it would have time to penetrate the surface. Also, being released at night it would not be subject to evapouration caused by sunlight.

      I also imagine that these solar trees will function in all countries, not just Austria, or those in Western Europe.

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      Stick Men
  3. Lighting Parking Lots??? by Wugger · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why bother going to the trouble of milking high quality renewable energy from the environment if you're just going to waste it on something frivolous like keeping an empty expanse of pavement lit up for eight hours a day!? If we stopped frittering away energy on pointless things like lighting empty parking lots, we'd have a lot less to worry about in terms of energy security. Even the big G doesn't get it.