14 DAY TRIAL // Solar cells are awesome things, but they also look really bulky usually. Photovoltaic cells can be a lot thinner than normal though, thin enough for the substrate to be see-through.
One type of such cells is the mass-producible organic photovoltaic (OPV) leaf from the VTT Technical Centre of Finland.
Introduced back in January, they literally look like leaves and are thinner than some of the natural leaves I've seen.
The leaves have been used in an energy-harvesting tree, but they don't just absorb solar power. The scientists from the VTT Technical Centre of Finland also installed multi-power converters on each leaf.
Thus, the leaves can make the best of temperature differences and vibrations as well, essentially allowing them to generate power from wind or even bumps or strokes.
The body of the tree is a pretty simple five-arm structure. It is 3D printed from wood-based biomaterials. The resemblance to a twig is only borderline, but it is there.
To get some practical benefits from the tree, you can install it either indoors or outside and hook it up to a generator or battery charging station of some sort.
In the future, bigger trees like this will be created, since the concept is easy to scale.
