Solar Tree Passes the Test in Austria

A solar tree used to light up the streets passed a key test in Vienna, Austria. They provided enough light even when there was no sunlight for four days in a row. The solar tree has a renewable battery powered by solar energy.

The Cultural Project Management (Kulturelles Projektmanagement, Vienna) is installing these solar tree lights on a test basis on the streets of Vienna before they will use it citywide. They went on display for four weeks in October on a busy street, Ringstrasse, and they passed the test with flying colors.

The solar tree had branches containing 10 solar lamps, each one of the lamp contained 36 solar cells made from Sharp. The lamps also had rechargeable batteries and electronic systems. The batteries stored energy during the day and were switched on and off at preset times with the electronic systems.

The tree's lights went on for the first time in Vienna on October 8, 2007 at 11:00 pm. They are now on display outside the La Scala opera house in Milan.

Ross Lovegrove, a British designer, made this solar tree prototype design with the main goal to be both useful and attractive. Artemide, a company from Italy, in designing lighting systems and the German company Sharp Solar joined forces together to design the overall solar tree.

Christina Werner from Cultural Project Management told RenewableEnergyAccess.com:"The solar cells on the tree were able to store enough electricity in spite of receiving no direct solar light for days at a time because of the clouds. They showed that solar trees really are a practical form of street lighting."

She said the City of Vienna will decide soon to implement this solar tree concept on other parts of the city. She also hopes it will become a main form of street lighting in Europe. When the solar tree uses an LED lighting system, it will cut down further carbon emission and save electricity bills for the local authorities.

"Street lighting consumed 10 percent of all the electricity used in Europe in 2006 or 2,000 billion KWh, and resulted in carbon emissions of 2,900 million ton."

A modification of this can be used to light the objects and shops as well.

I think this is a great concept, and the streets in the Americas can also use a similar lighting system to save energy. Google uses a similar concept to light the parking lots and generate energy by installing solar panels.