BY: TJ MOREY
Humanity is finally embracing the prospect of harnessing the power of our sun. Solar energy is going through a period of constant program iteration, from giving it for free to poor households in California to using it to power a colossal office building. Yet another innovative idea has been developed by Sologic, an Israeli solar startup, and they’ve proudly christened it as the eTree.
An ecological sculpture mimicking a tree and crafted out of a metal trunk and faux foliage, the eTree branches out to support solar panels instead of leaves, giving it a cheeky retro look. The eTree offers a total power capacity of 1.4 kilowatts per hour and provides a shaded resting area with an interactive LCD display, Wi-Fi, and docking stations for smartphones, tablets, and laptops, making it a nice piece of functional art for an urban environment.
The eTree offers a total power capacity of 1.4 kilowatts per hour and provides a shaded resting area with an interactive LCD display, Wi-Fi, and docking stations for smartphones, tablets, and laptops, making it a nice piece of functional art for an urban environment.
Since the eTree was conceived in Israel, a country where temperatures typically range between 27 and 32 degrees Celsius, Sologic has also fitted it with a water-cooler that serves fresh running water and a trough for animals to drink from. The eTree is also adorned with LED lamps that allow it to be illuminated at night.
Sologic recently installed the first eTree at the HaNadiv Gardens in Israel, and intend to sell it in France and China soon, as well as launching smaller variants for individual clients. The tree will cost between $20,000 and $100,000 and can be installed in schools, parks, courtyards, and in various other urban areas.
The company’s aim, apart from supplying reliable free energy to people, is to generate and encourage public interactivity with green technology. The hope is that installing the eTree in public places will allow the average person to understand and experience the utility of solar energy first hand, which will encourage them to integrate it into their own homes.
The company’s aim, apart from supplying reliable free energy to people, is to generate and encourage public interactivity with green technology and encourage them to integrate it into their own homes.
Sources: gizmag.com, solargiving.com, exergynews.com
