Wind power from artificial trees

The notion of biomimicry, or innovation inspired by nature, is gaining prominence. The basic idea is: how would nature do it?

Now comes the idea that an artificial tree could generate electricity. Using a synthetic leaf, London-based Solar Botanic is causing a stir with its idea to use the simple back-and-forth movement caused by wind to generate electricty.

According to a Web page on Nanoleaves, “A Nanoleaf is thin like a natural leaf, when outside forces, like the wind pushes the Nanoleaf back and forth, mechanical stresses appear in the petiole, twig and branches. When thousands of Nanoleaves flap back and forth due to wind, millions and millions of Pico watts are generated, the stronger the wind, the more energy is generated.”

Wind movement is not the only way Nanoleaves would generate energy.

Nanoleaves would reflect back only a tiny percentage of sunlight directed at them. The remaining light would be absorbed by photovoltaic and thermovoltaic cells in the Nanoleaf. Then, the light would be converted thermal radiation and finally into electricity. Nanoleaves would even be able to harness infrared radiations to create energy.

Expect to hear more about biomimicry in the coming years. Here's a video on the subject.