Solar Tree is a quantum leap towards making energy reliant and carbon negative India. Each solar tree has the potential to save 10-12 tons of CO2 emissions being released into the atmosphere as GHG, when compared with fossil fuel fired energy generation. Besides, the surplus generated power can be fed into an Energy Grid.
CSIR-CMERI developed world’s largest solar tree, is installed at its Residential Colony, Durgapur. Prof. (Dr.) Harish Hirani, Director, CSIR-CMERI, elaborating about the technology stated that, “The installed capacity of the solar tree is above 11.5 kWp. It has the annual capacity to generate 12,000-14,000 units of clean and green power.”
The Solar Tree is designed to ensure maximum exposure of each solar PV panel to sunlight and also creation of the least amount of shadow area beneath. There are a total of 35 solar PV panels in each tree. Prof.(Dr.) Harish explained, that solar tree also has certain customizable features for application at diverse sites. The solar trees were designed to ensure minimum shadow area, thus potentially making them available for widespread usage in agricultural activities such as high capacity pumps, e-Tractors and e-Power Tillers. These trees can be aligned with agriculture for substituting price-volatile fossil fuels. Solar tree has the capability to incorporate IoT based features, i.e., round-the-clock CCTV surveillance in agricultural fields, real-time humidity, wind speed, rainfall prediction and soil analytics sensors.
