Unruled Notebook

Yes, I know, in principle, all flowers and trees are because of the Sun. But here is what technologist call as a solar flower.

This mobile installation consists of 5 wi-fi enabled flower sculptures which each include seating for 10 people.  Created for and inspired by Toyota’s “Harmony Between Man, Nature, and Machine” campaign, the sculptures combine form and function via the addition of  solar panels on the back of each petal, which power outlets for use in recharging cell phones and laptops.  CNet news has more details.

The Solar Flower Lounge consists of custom cut and bent powder coated aluminum stalks, petals and leaves and molded polyetyelyne benches.  Flexible solar panels charge interior batteries used to power 110V outlets, and 3G wireless internet nodes are located in the flower heads.  Color changing LED lighting provides atmosphere and illumination during nighttime hours.

This would look like this

Currently on display in San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens (the solar flower pictures shown here), these are the creation of a company called Poetic Kinetics

Here is a schematic providing some rudiments of the technology (courtesy Poetic Kinetics website)

Now for Solar Trees.

A 130 kW installation of Solar Trees at Dell’s headquarters in Round Rock, Texas. Dell’s Solar Grove is expected to help avoid 145,000 of greenhouse gas emissions per year. The new item Dell Gets a Solar Grove in Round Rock contain more snippets about this technology.

Here is a thought: Yes, if we have parking lots in India, we could also think of this. Not having them aplenty is a good thing. Because, to fill those lots we would need more cars to get parked in wide open spaces, which beats the solution of solar trees from elsewhere by burning more fuel and polluting the environment. So, may be we could install these over bus stops, to begin with. Also, the roof of buses can be solar panels – hopefully, not that heavy – to derive power, if not for substituting the fuel, may be for internal needs.

The IITs (faculty) already have most of the technology know-how for doing both these installations in India. If an Indian company – say, Ashok Leyland – can get convinced of manufacturing this for (only) reasonable profit, I am sure the IITs can play their research consultancy role to yield results on road – literally.