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Solar Tree Bears Fruit
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."
How much non-renewable energy does it take to produce each solar tree?
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.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
How big are their parking lots?
I believe Vienna is in AUSTRIA.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
how much energy is going to be wasted on replacing the stolen cells ?
As a citizen of Austria, I find it quite astonishing that this thing was able to provide light for a couple of days, although I have to admit that compared to now October still had plenty of daylight. I don't know whether or not they have been removed from the streets, but it would be pretty interesting to see for how long they can go in December/January, when it's quite dark throughout the entire month.
Apart from the energy savings, though, I wouldn't necessarily want to see them implemented throughout the city. Most of the 1st district's lighting is quite dim, giving the whole city with its many historic buildings a bit of a romantic flair, which - in my opinion - would be lost with all those bright lights everywhere.
:/- spoon(_).
... or heard or read about it. Anyway, this tree seems to be rather a piece or art than anything that is likely to go into mass production anytime soon.
So long as fossil fuels are being burned to make power during the day, it is far more efficient to take the daytime output of the most cost-effective possible panels (usually nice unimaginative rectangular ones that mount on existing roofs or new carport structures) and feed it directly to the grid to reduce the load on the inefficient plants that peak during the daytime. There is no reason to lose a major chunk of the power charging batteries, to build expensive battery arrays or to build bizarre structures to support the cells.
At night, the worst power plants are throttled back or shut down and the most efficient plants are handling the load.
When no further fossil fuels are used to make daytime power, then storing electricity from daylight becomes interesting and, even then, batteries are a loser.
Its not too bad not suitable for every street admittedly.
its look is like an anemone quite alien an almost Martian chronicles feel to it. googles bus shelter designs are not as interesting to look at.
cost to make them may be quite high, however with 10% of European electricity production going into street lighting in europe the potential reduction in carbon emissions is significant.
Retro fitting just the LED lamps to existing street lighting could be power saving in itself. The solar panels wouldn't need to provide power year round since existing lamps have a power supply they could switch too.
I'm sure more sympathetic designs could be made, its the potential of this project which makes it interesting.
The real questions are how much power is required and how much light do these tree's produce.
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Aren't trees already solar powered?
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.
The sun is in your hand!
From the photograph I'd love to see these effective at a 20 - 30 degree slop from horizontal so as us folks who get SNOW could still utilize these without them becoming a catcher's mitt for heavy snowfall.
Regular street lights produce way too much light, however. This causes people's eyes to adapt to brighter night-time light, which makes them blinder in places the street lights don't cover as well.
Furthermore, while the design looks attractive, it is not clear from the photograph that the light produced is fully shielded to prevent horizontal propagation and consequent energy waste and light pollution. If cities are looking to redesign night-time lighting, one hopes they will consider the importance of dark skies while they're at it.
An interesting article for reference.
There are commercially available solar street lights in the US. 5-day battery backup, resistant to 150MPH winds. "During the 2004 hurricane season in Florida, SLV models withstood ground zero wind conditions from category 5 hurricanes and typhoons." Just what's needed to provide light during emergencies.
The "Solar Tree" is more of an art project.
When will those fucking assholes stop polluting just about every square millimeter of our planet with artificial ugly light?! It's totally outrageous that just about nobody alive today has actually ever had the chance to experience why we call the milky way the milky way.
0x or or snor perron?!
These solar-powered city lights look practical only for cities where it doesn't snow. Those flat panels set parallel to the ground will collect piles of snow in the winter, possibly for weeks on end. After the batteries drain, the street below simply is not lit, which is a safety hazard. And for you suburban dwellers who assume street lighting's purpose is to show drivers where the curbs are: its primary purpose in cities is to cut down on street crime. Unlit city streets are a safety hazard not as a matter of potential stubbed toes, but as a matter of life-or-death situations.
Pigeons will also find these nice flat surfaces a great place to land and, um, leave deposits. Adding a few spikes to each panel would cut down on that, or angling the panels to make them less of a landing zone.
But these are solvable problems. There is great hope that engineers and artists can combine forces to create practical but beautiful solar-powered city lights.
when someone invents a cheap way to illuminate a whole city during nighttime, amateur astronomy will die :(
...at 45 degrees. Sure, you'd lose efficiency but this could be made up for by having a few more panels. The payoff would be the self-cleaning action when rain falls, plus birds would be less likely to roost on them.
Solar cells are expensive. These things could become an easy target for thieves.
All that needs to be done is to make a law around the world so that all new houses, premises, businesses etc have to have solar panels. The old houses will take time but at least it is a start. With the law, the price of solar panels will go down due to increased demand and older houses will be able to afford solar panels.
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Please use solar power to replace fossil fuel based power plants. And after these have all been replaced, replace the fission plants. We don't need to light the streets at night. Most street lights are badly designed, and most of the light goes up into the sky, being wasted for nothing. From the pictures of this one, it looks no different. Streetlights waste a light of light, thus energy and often illuminate the street badly. Right beneath it, you are basked in light so that you barely see what is happening a meter/3 feet to the side of you. It blocks out the stars, and in many cities you are already happy if the planets are visible. All these lights are also bad for nature. Night animals need the dark, day animals too. Our cities our drowning in light, offering no security, no health benefits, no starry nights, and only waste energy. Please, just turn them of.
This tree is neat and cool and all, but would you mind not putting it right outside my apartment window!!?!?!?
>:(
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I guess if you are going to chop down more carbon absorbing trees and use up more resources to make fake "trees", you might actually have to worry about the carbon emissions from energy production.
Or you could just stop cutting down every tree in sight...
what's that bright thing near the shore of Argentina in South America? did anyone nuked the Falklands? :)