Solar Power Tree developed by CSIR-CMERI for generation of electricity

Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, on 22 July 2016 launched the Solar Power Tree in New Delhi.

The Solar Power Tree has been developed by the CSIR-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-CMERI), a constituent laboratory of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

The product harnesses solar energy for producing electricity with an innovative vertical arrangement of solar cells. Therefore, it reduces the requirement of land as compared to conventional Solar Photovoltaic layout.

As a future prospect, the Solar Power Tree will be developed in a rotatable module, which will have a motorized mechanism to align itself with the movement of the Sun during the day.

Key features of the Solar Power Tree
• It takes only 4 square feet of land for a 5 KW Solar Power tree. On the other hand, a conventional layout requires 400 square feet of land.
• By holding the photovoltaic panels at a higher height, it gets more sunrays for one hour in a day on an average. As a result, it is possible to harness 10-15% more power in comparison to a conventional layout on ground.
• It has a battery back-up of 2 hours on full load. Therefore, it is capable of giving light even after sunset.
• It is facilitated with water sprinkler at the top for self-cleaning of panels, which increases the efficiency of the solar panels.
• The estimated cost of the device is around 5 Lakh rupees for a 5 KW specification.