Solar Trees Offer Semi-Portable Solution For Energy Generation In Tight Spaces |
4 Comments |
| By Michael d'Estries in Energy, Solar | June 6, 2009 | |
I just came across this “Solar Tree” design from Gurdeep Sandhu and thought it to be a creative take on energy generation. As he explains,
With a little space in your backyard, installing this solar tree will not be a problem. During the day just wing-out the panels and let them absorb the glory of the sun; and in the evening fold them back. If you need to move house, just uproot it and take it along with you. Else if technology changes, you can even upgrade the panels for maximum benefit. Silent, efficient, cost effective are some of the virtues that sound music to my ears. What’s more you can either directly hook it up to appliance during the day or store the energy for later use. The sturdy metallic silver aluminum frame looks neat and tidy when packed up.
I’d love to see some big wheels on this thing to make it truly portable. I could see construction crews rolling these suckers off of trucks and using them to power machinery. Having them fold up easily and tuck away somewherer is definitely a plus — though I wonder how many people could benefit from a setup like this instead of one on their roofs.
Branching out (literally) in solar design | GreenTech Pastures | ZDNet.com said,
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Gaspard Leon said,
How does this save space?
If you want it to collect energy it needs to be unfolded.
It also doesn’t look very stable (wind?) if not bolted down, which means it’s about as portable as any other solution… Not to mention it would have to be wired up to the charge controller etc.
“I could see construction crews rolling these suckers off of trucks and using them to power machinery.”
Huh, so how much energy does one of these things generate… hmm in full sun at central latitudes it probably has the potential for 1000watts per square metre… with average PV efficiency of say 13% that is 130watts per square metre… so to power a 1000watt circular saw you would need say 10 square metres of panel and a big heavy inverter… or you could just bring along a generator… say if it’s cloudy for example…
Overall it’s a _basic_ design of PV rack, nothing more…
Something I’m missing?
Martin said,
PV solutions for the home should be ‘set it and forget it’. Forgetting to batten down this design when bad weather comes could be a very expensive oversight
Kimberly Packer said,
What a unique concept, but like Leon said above, how exactly does this save space? If you unfold it, it takes up a lot of room. I guess you can unfold it on a deck or something, when you are not out there yourself using the space.