Electricity does grow on trees

AN ARTIFICIAL tree which has “leaves” that generate electricity will be installed in Paris’s Place de la Concorde between March and May, as part of a series of events and exhibitions in the capital ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference at the end of 2015.

It will be the first time the “Wind Tree” has been installed in a city and the location has been chosen with care. Place de la Concorde was where Henri Archereau demonstrated large-scale electric lighting to a stunned crowd in 1848.

The first Wind Tree - a 26ft prototype - was installed after three years of development work in Pleumeur-Bodou, Brittany.

“The idea came to me in a square where I saw the leaves tremble when there was not a breath of air,” said Jérôme Michaud-Larivière, the founder of NewWind, the French company that developed the Wind Tree.

Its leaves are shaped to catch the wind, no matter what direction it comes from, and Mr Michaud-Larivière said it can generate electricity when windspeeds are as low as 4.5mph. He added that he hoped they could be used to generate power for LED street lamps, or charging stations for electric cars.

More consistent winds are found at higher altitudes, but Mr Michaud-Larivière criticised the “monstrous machines” needed to generate power from winds so high above the ground.

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Photo: Screengrab: NewWind / Youtube