Israel's Solar-Powered 'Trees'
For Smartphones And Community
OCTOBER 25, 2014
Emily Harris
There are plenty of real trees in Ramat HaNadiv. Oaks, pine and willow line the trails that circle through this nature park
near Mount Carmel in northern Israel. And planted in the gravel at the edge of one clearing is a new species, the solar
powered tree.Biologically speaking, of course, all trees are powered by the sun. But this is different.
Its brown metal trunk and branches reach high toward the sky, like the acacia tree this
model is named after. Its seven broad "leaves" are standard solar panels. They shade
benches below, as well as power electric and USB outlets, chill drinking fountain water and
supply energy for wi-fi.
Inventor Michael Lasry says it's a new way of bringing solar power to people.
"We're used to seeing big companies working on large scale systems," he says. "Now we
see solar energy becoming accessible to each one of us on the street."
The tree was formally unveiled Thursday, although it and a smaller, two-panel model were
installed in the park several weeks ago. Guests invited to the ribbon cutting ceremony loved
it. "People come with computers to coffee shops," said Gideon Inbar, a retired IsraeliAmerican. "They can come here."
"It's wonderful," said Xia Wang, from China, who attended the unveiling. "Many functions. And it's also very green
energy."Wang's company, Mode PV-Tech, made the panels.
The Israeli company that dreamed up the tree, Sologic, is targeting cities in China and France for first sales, says Claude
Brightman, a Sologic publicist. Her pitch aims at the future." The new cities of tomorrow, the smart cities ... this will be the
icon of the city who has made such a choice," she says. One Acacia model solar tree costs about $100,000. Brightman
calls it a combination of art, convenience, green energy and community — all frequent aims of urban design, she says
A seven-panel tree can generate a maximum of 1.4 kilowatts, enough to run 35 laptops. A battery stores excess power,
lighting the area at night using LEDs and providing backup power on cloudy days.
One Israeli politician speaking at the unveiling ceremony suggested fields of solar trees might be nicer than the fields of
industrial solar panels that have sprung up on rooftops and in deserts. Eli Barnea, an investor in Israel's largest private
power company, agrees they are prettier. But he says the solar tree has its limits.
"It's an excellent idea for young people away from home, they go to the park, they play and want to charge their phone or
do other things. That's fine."
But to use solar trees for serious power generation, he says would be difficult. "It will be expensive. When you don't look
at it as a means of energy production, but like another item in a park, I think it will catch
on worldwide."
Sologic CEO Lasky doesn't want to plug the trees in to the grid anyway. He says
keeping them self-sustaining is part of the point. "Showing that OK, we're in the middle
of the desert and we're able to create everything we need just from the solar system,"
he says.
Future solar tree models are planned to include technology to condense water from the
air, as well as touch screens to display information or give internet access.
And cameras, says Lasry, to connect people under a solar tree in one part of the world
with people under another solar tree in another place. "That's the idea, to bring the
community closer. All the trees around the world will be able to communicate," he says.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/10/25/358571620/israels-solar-powered-trees-for-smartphones-and-community