GOING OUT ON A LIMB: A new company called Solar Botanic plans to build artificial trees that reap solar and wind energy.
Image: Solar Botanic
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While on a train ride to visit his sister in the Netherlands in 2002, where monstrous wind turbines now mar scenic views, Alex van der Beek got an idea: Instead of ruining the natural landscape with conventional technology, why not generate electricity from something that blends in—a fake tree?
Van der Beek—whose previous professional experience was teaching alternative medicine—founded Solar Botanic, Ltd., in London last year on the concept. Solar Botanic's ambitious plan involves bringing together three different energy-generation technologies—photovoltaics (aka solar power, or electricity from visible sunlight), thermoelectrics (electricity from heat) and piezoelectrics (electricity from pressure)—all in the unassuming shape of a leaf on its stem.
Place thousands of these units, dubbed nanoleaves, on a natural-looking, though fake plastic tree—and one could have electricity production without spoiling natural landscapes, van der Beek says.
In addition to solar power, as rustling wind or falling rain disturbs the false leaves, nanogenerators in their petioles—the stalks connecting them to a branch—could generate small amounts of piezoelectrical power, van der Beek says. And thermoelectrics, like photovoltaics, take advantage of the sun, but rather than harvesting light, it converts the low-energy waves we feel as heat into electricity.
At present, Solar Botanic is exploring several designs, from palm trees to broad leaves as well as flowers and shrubbery. Van der Beek predicts a tree with a canopy 20 feet (six meters) in diameter that provides a surface area of roughly 1,200 square feet (110 square meters) could power an average home, whereas groves of them could make ample amounts of electricity in and around population centers. "These trees could help avoid the long land lines that bring electricity to cities and homes," van der Beek says.
Solar Botanic hasn't settled on materials, but the nanoleaves would likely rely on highly efficient, thin-film solar cells, perhaps made of copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), to convert sunlight into an electric current, van der Beek says.
Installation of an energy harvesting tree, van der Beek says, would simply require drilling a hole and then anchoring the extended tree trunk and base in the ground. The branches would go on much like those of an artificial Christmas tree, segment by segment. Should a section or leaf get damaged, customers could swap it out for a new or repaired piece of hardware, says van der Beek. Power lines running underground would bring the energy to a home or a central power storage area; inverters for turning the direct current generated by the faux tree into usable alternating current could go in the trunk or a nearby dwelling.
Van der Beek envisions the trees lining roadways, trapping heat and capturing the whirling winds of passing tractor-trailers. Artificial trees with electrical outlets in mall parking lots could charge electric vehicles while the owner shops, he says.
The company's "trees" would approximate the real thing as closely as possible. "We want to keep the outside resembling a natural tree, so that means no nuts and bolts," van der Beek says. Though the trunk would be made primarily of recycled materials including plastic bottles and car tires, van der Beek says it would also contain liquefied waste biomass—wood—processed via a steam-combustion technique developed at the State Institute of Wood Chemistry in Riga, Latvia. "The result is a fluid product that we mold into any form we like, so therefore we should be able to create trees that look, feel and smell like real wood," van der Beek says. The leaves wouldn't be shiny like a solar panel, either.
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30 Comments
Add Commentapart from objections already mentioned, I can add storm damage. Have you ever seen the wind take off leaves and branches from a tree?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's a nice concept but it only belongs in the Sharper Image store or other high-end adult toy store.
yeah, putting something like that up along roadways to capture the energy from passing vehicles is impractical. Maybe in a well sky-lighted mall or something, but outdoor use seems to be more trouble than its worth. But good idea! :)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe concept is flawed - wind turbines are considerably less ugly than electricity pylons or roads, its just that we're less accustomed to their presence. Also to claim that the leaves of trees represent an ideal in solar energy harvesting is nonsense, they represent a compromise between many differing factors - water loss through transpiration, shedding liquid from the surface etc - most of which are not really relevent to a man-made solar panel. This idea is literally equivalent to saying you should make a car that looks exactly like a horse 'because conventional cars are ugly' and then justifying yourself by claiming that horses are the ideal means of producing motion. Did anybody seriously put money behind this idea?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWill these trees drop their leaves in the fall so snow and ice loading don't destroy the entire structure?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou nay-sayers need to knock it off. Your critical thinking skills are a serious impediment to your faith. Zeus commands it!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlright folks, many of your criticisms could also hold true for traditional windmills and solar panels. The inventor didn't claim his trees would last forever, he just said they'd do the job, look good, and provide a new source of electricity. Just because you didn't think of it doesn't mean the idea won't hold its own. I personally would love to pull up and plug into a tree. Plus, I wouldn't mind at all driving through an artificial grove on my way to the big city. I think that van der Beek should challenge some local towns to be the first to install these things and show just how great they work.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs far as being "green" goes, wouldn't it be better to plant a real tree?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGreat idea. Even use the sway of the wind to capture energy where the branches are connected to the truck.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne more small problem--the world has a 13-year supply of indium (at current rates of consumption). Ramp that up for thin film solar production and we'll run out of indium before the artificial trees sink their first roots.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree that it is a good idea but to implement it, require a lot of practical challenges to be addressed much before. Maintenance of such trees will be huge pain. The idea can be implemented in a small area or may be a small town to see how it actually works and later on can be scaled if the results are worth .
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAbove all, I must say a thorough research is required about every minute aspect which in itself is huge requirement.
"Actions should be thought of, after All thoughts are done"
this is just a crazy idea like artificial rain. All these artificial activity just a crazy to duplicate the nature. These kind of ideas are not scalable to large. This idea may be good for small scale but not for large scale.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFew important things to be noted is how much investment have to be made and howmuch output that will give. Other thing is now we are facing problem like global warming and natural disaster and the reason behind this is the misutilization of natural resources.
" Synchronize yourself with nature, Nature will provide you everything you need for make your life succesful"
And not to mention all the little critters that run around. If these things look as close as possible to an actual tree, what's going to prevent a woodpecker or squirrel or bird trying to make it's home there, unsuccessfully I might add. Could you imagine if a bird decides to make it's home in the "leaves"?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is impossible know to know how good or bad it is until they create a bush or tree as a test and see how it works. At least he is trying to come up with new ideas.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's amazing how negative people are to almost everything. Try to give $500 out to a hundred people. Most would find some reason to complain about it. Either it not being enough to what kind of nut are you to give away $500 to strangers. Too much negativity in humans.
Great idea! Such creative thinking. Make it so.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI would not say this is a bad idea. It's a good idea, however, there are many factors besides potential damage which should be taken into consideration.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1. shading from upper "leaves" would reduce the light hitting lower "leaves" and prevent from being productive to their fullest capability. This causes capital expense without greatest potential return on investment.
2. "Forests" of such trees would not use their ability to produce energy efficiently from the wind because they would act as a natural wind barrier on their own, just as if you were to go into a field on the Canadian prairies it could be quite windy, but if you go a few meters into a dense patch of trees the wind is dramatically reduced. Therefore, large groupings of these trees would produce energy at nearing full capacity at the outer edge and become increasingly less efficient as you get nearer the center of the "forest"
3. The use of thermal heat to produce energy may very well be great in theory, however, such a device would have to be in direct line of sight with the sun in order to be of meaningful use unless the device is designed to operate at atmospheric termperatures. That would mean that upper "P/V leaves" and the "branches" holding them would shade the thermal electric generator, since P/V panels would only be useful if on top of the "tree" the design would require that other types of power generation be below.
As I just pointed out, the capital costs associated with the wind shaded, light shaded, or thermally shaded portions of the "trees" would certainly make the cost/benefit ratio prohibitive in comparison to other forms of technology.
Although it may be a more attractive alternative to windmills (some may even disagree with that) or any other traditional form of renewable energy generation, the technical hurdles necessary to overcome and the efficiency testing necessary to prove whether this would be a prudent use of invested funds must certainly be done before any serious investor or community would commit to significant capital outlay.
Christopher Towle
christophertowle@bonsolaire.com
www.bonsolaire.com
WOW, I thought that shortage of oil will doom our civilisation. Tanks for expanding my horizons, never heard of Indium just shows how ignorant are people.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRegards;
Robert
I remember not to long ago, when a couple of pioneers were ready to sail towards the horizon, just to find out if there was land? Many bystanders all seemed to know, "that they were going to fall off the Earth' well they didn't!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTrees with over millions of years perfecting their system decided that all those leaves do a fine job. Now let's not imitate these "bystanders" and see what they come up with.
A
Unfortunately, Trees leaves are not designed to be efficient producers of electricity, but rather provide light for a chemical reaction. And they grow the leaves, they do not build them in a factory, if one falls off it costs no money for the tree to regrow the leaf, if one is torn it costs the tree no money continue to function. The redundancy of having hundreds of leaves is necessary in a biological organism which depends on said leaves for it's life and growth.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe same can not be said about a mechanical tree made of mechanical devices used to produce electric charge. You can not simply have a solar panel regrow at no financial cost, and you can not heal a broken solar cell. Therefore, although your comparison is imaginative, it is not a practical retort of the argument that this particular technological marriage of devices is filled full of more mountains to climb than valleys. Yes there may be a market for this product but it is almost certain that it will not replace the windmills the inventor is so keen to rid the world of when a single windmill rated at 1 or 1.5 megawatts will produce more power in a year than a whole forest of the devices under discussion. Based on their estimate of 120,000 KW per year, this device would have to produce 13.6986 KWe per hour, ever hour for the whole year. If you check the technical specs of any device, they would not give such a steady operating estimate, most might say perhaps 40% of time is productive time. Therefore, this unit would at minimum need to be rated at 25KWe in order to produce 120,000 KWe per year. That I am afraid is simply not possible with the technological format they are offering. If these trees were able to produce 25KWe with a productive time of 40% of the days out of a year, they would be more efficient than the sterling devices now being offered by on the market, but at 20% or less of the price. I am sorry, but the numbers given by the developer are purely science fiction, and according to the article they have not even decided concretely on construction materials, let alone build a prototype, therefore, this article and the trees they are talking about, are as at this time, still science fiction.
Well, I first must admit that I am a consulting Arborist...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere already exists a self-replicating, self-regulating and rather efficient mechanism that sequesters carbon AND provides climate-moderation (locally) AND converts solar energy into useable substances (food, fuel, building materials); is fault-tolerant, automatically orients itself to the sun, etcetera.
I've long been of the opinion that if as much attention/money was spent on planting (and protecting) TREES, we would have much less of a problem with climate change.
That and some attention to the fact that the real root problem is too many people (if there were only a billion or less of us we could use quite a bit more resources per capita and not muck the place up so badly)
Or so it appears from here.
I find production of renewable energy to be beautiful in itself. This whole issue of "natural" and "unnatural" is ridicules.
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Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA novel idea, it sounds interesting. Go for it.
People may have roof-top gardens with such electricity generating green trees double up as shades to cool down the building, provided the cost is no object and the efficiency is high enough to offset maintenance.
Plausible and probable effective source of renewable energy, give it a try.
(Tan Boon Tee)
I will have to add, as redundant as it may be, that I do not find wind turbines an eyesore. This is especially true when they are place in clusters like the Netherlands or Denmark as opposed to the mass wind farms of central Texas in the United States. It is like arranging flowers...stick to odd numbers, 3's, 5's, 7's and 17's but stay away from fields in perfect rows of hundred upon hundreds, at least for aesthetics sake. Or build offshore where less people see the structures, major ship routes can be avoided and wind speed is generally greater at lower altitudes.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOH, and as I eat my own words, wouldn't be great if people cited their comments on articles like this. I don't know much about indium, but reading an internet comment stating that we only have 13 years of said resource remaining in the world is a statement that needs to be backed up.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI was wondering whether the plants would have mechanisms to harvest wind energy. Then I came across the idea of artificial trees to harvest wind, thermal and solar energy. But do real trees harvest wind energy? While searching on this subject I found two interesting papers. One is the 1992 paper "Wind-induced plant motion immediately increases cytosolic calcium" by Knight et al. ( PNAS June 1, 1992 vol. 89 no. 11 4967-4971) and the other is "Thigmomorphogenesis: a complex plant response to mechano-stimulation" (J Exp Bot 2009 60:43-56) by Braam and colleagues. However, it appears that they are working on "elucidation of the mechanisms through which plants perceive mechano-stimuli and transduce the signals intracellularly to induce appropriate responses.".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCan we look at these mechanisms, not only from the viewpoint of a response, but also for converting the mechanical energy to chemical, electrical and potential energy? For example, I would think that wind controlled opening and closing of valves associated with the motion of leaves can pump water upto the leaves from the roots. Many of the chemical processes in response to normal, non-dangerous mechanical stimuli like wind rustling through the leaves, could be contributing to energy harvest and storage rather than as a response to a dangerous herbivory attack.
If indeed the plants have evolved mechanisms to harvest wind energy, then there could be some plants that are more adept at it. I feel that the Sacred Fig (Ficus religiosa) (Peepal in Marathi, Hindi) with its typical dancing leaves with long flexible stem must be very efficient in harvesting wind energy.
Plants with access to plenty of sunlight may not depend on wind energy. But plants in the undergrowth, with thick mass of leaves that shade each other, in windy areas in non-tropical regions might depend on wind energy more. Has anyone observed deficiency in plants grown in green houses? Could artificial winds in green houses help them?
I have a better solution. Look at this:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.giurfa.com/artrees.html
i want to say that in order to preserve our nature. We need to stop cutting our trees and instead use <a href="http://www.flowerconcept.com">Artificial Trees</a> so we there are plenty of Oxygen for the rest of us.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi agree with this..please stop cutting our trees, use <a href="http://www.flowerconcept.com">Artificial Trees</a> instead.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI would rather see this tree grown and used as a source of cellulose ethanol:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.emeraldplantations.com/products.html
<a href="http://www.silkplantsamerica.com">Silk Plants</a> are the same thing as artificial plants. I wonder if the same property would apply?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is really very good concept to produce electricity dynamically. But is think it is a very difficult task for engineers. We can see here some <a href="http://qualitysilkflowers.blogspot.com/">Silk plants</a>, i think it would be use in future to generate electricity.
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