Advanced Research in Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Print ISSN: 2349-5804; Online ISSN: 2349-5812 Volume 2, Number 10 April-June (2015) pp. 67-71
© Krishi Sanskriti Publications
http://www.krishisanskriti.org/areee.html
Design of Solar Tree with Photovoltaic Panels
using Fibonacci Pattern
Huma Khan
1
and Prerna Gaur
2
1,2
E-mail:
Dept. of Instrumentation and Control Netaji Subhas Institute Of Technology New Delhi, India
1
humazakhan@yahoo.com,
2
Abstract—This paper presents a technology that emulates how trees
convert sunlight into electricity. Sun daily radiates an enormous
amount of energy to Earth, and that energy is still not properly
exploited, neither in World nor in India. There is no systematic
stimulation for usage of solar panels, purely relying on individual
cases of installation on different types of objects. Solar photovoltaic
(SPV) is a land consuming system. Scarcity of land is the greatest
crisis of the Earth. Now a days with the growing population and
energy demand we should take a renewable option of energy source
and also we should keep in mind that energy should not cause
pollution and other natural hazards. Solar Tree is invented for
installing PV-module on a tall pole-like structure with branches like
panels and takes only 1% of land than conventional SPV layout.
prernagaur@yahoo.com
1. INTRODUCTION
The object of this work is to design an installation that, using
photovoltaic panels, could provide the electricity in the areas
where the electricity grid is not reachable or areas in which we
don’t want to depend on it. Using the renewable energy source
we’ll get services efficiently with minimum environmental
impact and large savings in electricity bills [1].
Here comes the idea of a Solar Tree [2] a new invention of
installing PV modules on a tall pole like structure with leaf
like branches surrounding it following a pattern of spiraling
phyllotaxy as found in natural tree. It would take 1% of land
area in comparison to general PV system [3,4,5]. One need to
erect the PV panels under the sun so that the surface of panel
gets maximum sun of the day being laid at an angle. Now for
an example, the generation of 2 MW power from PV module
system requires the land of 10 Acres approx. for housing the
panels only [6]. But land is going to be greatest crisis of the
earth rather is already a burning crisis in the most of the
countries [7]. The cultivable land which is going to be the
costliest commodity in the near future, if used for other than
agriculture, it will be uncountable loss. Our many national
projects are facing the severe problem of acquisition of land.
Therefore if land area is used for capturing the solar power it
would never be cost effective and viable for the human society
[8, 9]. Therefore there is a need for devising a method and
fabricating a suitable device so that the solar power can be
absorbed without occupying much surface area, rather
utilizing he minimum amount of land and the electricity must
be economically viable [10].
2. SOLAR POWER
The energy emitted by sun within three minutes is equivalent
to the world energy consumption during a year. Solar energy
is unique source which can be exploited in many different
ways as one such way is Photovoltaic conversion [11]:
In Photovoltaic conversion, solar radiation falls on
semiconductor devices called solar cells which convert
sunlight directly into electricity [12, 13]. When light falls on
the junction between two types of semiconductor called p-type
and N-type-type has an excess of electrons and P-type has a
shortage of electrons. When a bright light shines on a cell,
energy from the light (photons) enables electrons to break free
from the junction between them. This is called photoelectric
effect. The flow of electrons constitutes an electric current
stored in batteries. Photovoltaic effect is shown in the Fig. 1.
Fig. 1: Photovoltaic Effect
3. INSPIRATION
The idea for this project started with the following hypothesis.
If we build a solar tree using solar panel in which each
element follows the distribution of leaves in a tree, we will
have good performance in capturing electromagnetic waves.
Tree can produce their food material by the process called
PHOTOSYNTHESIS.