Glowing trees and other eye catching objects could soon be adorning streets of Europe. Yes, they do require a lot of energy but the energy of sun does more than just good to them. The solar LED light systems look wonderful. I mean interspersing nature with dry and grey cityscape does look soothing and they could be the main source of lighting streets. A wonderful idea, transformed into reality and the whole city of Vienna was witness to it during the Vienna Design Week in October. Running on just solar energy for four days at a stretch on not so sunny days, is testing any prototype to extreme.
Enriching each branch of the solar tree are 10 solar lamps, comprising of 36 solar cells. An electronic system and rechargeable batteries ensures full glow even in extreme conditions. An automatic sensor measures the amount of light in the atmospheres and triggers the lamps to go on and off accordingly at sunrise and sunset.
A masterpiece by renowned evolutionary biologist and highly experimental British designer Ross Lovegrove, worked upon by Artemide (an Italian company specializing in designer lighting systems) and Photovoltaic production giant Sharp solar, worked together to transform the idea into stark reality.
Being a major energy guzzler, street lighting consumes as much as 10% of all the energy consumed in Europe. In 2006 itself nearly 2,000 billion KWh of energy was consumed while illuminating the streets and creating over 2,900 million ton of carbon emission.
After a scintillating and successful display of the prototype, the solar trees could actually bring the much desired carbon emissions down and also be a boon to the local authorities.
Via: Metaefficient
