Electricity that grows on trees

Researchers at the Institute for Print and Media Technology of Chemnitz University of Technology (pmTUC) are exhibiting a “solar tree” featuring printed electronics at drupa (Hall 15, stand A41).

10 May 2012 | By PrintWeek India

Similar to an ordinary tree, the tree with its 50 leaves faces the sun to collect energy. They convert this energy into electricity, which is collected by a battery in the tree’s trunk.

“If you stand below the tree and look up to the shade-giving leaves of the solar tree, you can see that the bottom side of the leaves are also printed with advertisements”, explained pmTUC team leader Arved Hübler. “That’s even better than in nature.”

According to Hübler, the ability to combine green energy with advertising applications could be the driving force of the printing industry of tomorrow. “As soon as the customer realises it is better to not throw advertising that contains a solar cell away, but to keep it to generate electricity, the printed solar cell will become an unbeatable advertising carrier with a sustainable image.”

Hübler’s book Print wird Elektronik (Print Becomes Electronics), has been published in German to coincide with Drupa. It analyses how electronic media and conventional print media increasingly will merge in the future. The book is available at Drupa and on request from pmTUC.