Solar trees with small or thin film devicesFlexible & rigid

Sheets give small impression of many examples which can be found on-line

Holst Centre• Bamboo tree with printed OPV leaves made by Holst Centre using inkjet printing• Made by Howest (Hogeschool West-Vlaanderen) students Industrial design

Holst Centre Artist impression

AIST Makes Tree With Solar-cell Leaves

http://inhabitat.com/asti-solar-powered-plant/

http://www.jetsongreen.com/2012/11/electree-solar-electric-bonsai-kickstarter.html

199$

http://www.alternativeconsumer.com/2008/12/24/solar-bonsai-tree-usb-charger/

http://blubee.com/theblog/?p=52http://blubee.com/theblog/?p=51

http://dev.nsta.org/evwebs/4308k/

Design Solar Tree Charger

http://www.geschenkmetverhaal.nl/shop/design-solar-boom-zonne-energie-gadget-duurzaam.html

€ 77,56 excl. btw

“I designed and built my own test model, copying the Fibonacci pattern of an oak tree. I studied my results with the compass tool and figured out the branch angles. The pattern was about 137 degrees and the Fibonacci sequence was 2/5. Then I built a model using this pattern from PVC tubing. In place of leaves, I used PV solar panels hooked up in series that produced up to 1/2 volt, so the peak output of the model was 5 volts. The entire design copied the pattern of an oak tree as closely as possible. … The Fibonacci tree design performed better than the flat-panel model. The tree design made 20% more electricity and collected 2 1/2 more hours of sunlight during the day. But the most interesting results were in December, when the Sun was at its lowest point in the sky. The tree design made 50% more electricity, and the collection time of sunlight was up to 50% longer!”

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/08/19/novel-idea-arrange-solar-panels-like-nature-designed-it/

http://www.greendix.com/news_detail.asp?news_id=32

http://www.designsojourn.com/solar-panels-inspired-by-leaves/

Leaf-shaped solar panels could coat buildings like ivy

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-07/11/solar-ivy#solar-ivy/viewgallery/268950

Large solar trees using c-Si cells

Many different examples