Sustainably Minded Interactive Technology (SMIT) has created a novel project that is able to generate both solar power as well as wind power from the same source. The inventor said she got the inspiration from ivy growing on a building.
Teresita Cochraine created this project along with her brother. She cut a leaf-shaped solar panel for her brother and then decided to create this
solar and wind hybrid power technology.
Just like ivy climbing on buildings on trees, their project named
GROW uses a series of flexible solar cells as leaves. They are designed to harness solar power, while the wind that makes them flutter is then converted to energy. Thus, it produces hybrid energy from both the sun and the wind.
The solar leaves are made of 100 per cent recycled polyethylene, and are available in a variety of colors and opacities and can add aesthetics to the buildings.
Solar leaf.
They created a first project GROW.1 which is currently at the Museum of Modern Art both for art purposes as well as for power generation. Their second project GROW.2, is used for residences, as the hybrid system is built on top of a stainless steel mesh system and allows ivy and other crawler planets to grow with it as shown below.
Solar leaf in a house.
Teresita wants to make this commercially available as soon as possible. She wants to sell them through regular stores so people can start building their systems.
I think this is a novel idea that provides energy from dual sources as well as provides building aesthetics. Also, it uses readily available polyethylene so it can be mass produced at a cheaper cost than silicon-based panels.
SMIT's GROW Project: Solar and Wind Power in One
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