A press release came out today from a UK company called Solar Botanic announcing the granting of patents as well as more patents pending covering Biomimicry, Nanoleaf Technology and Energy transfer materials. It’s an extremely interesting announcement that opens up a whole new realm of renewable energy using nanotechnology in such a way that solar and wind power are both captured and converted into electricity.

The Solar Botanic technology involves artificial trees and plants that look lifelike enough to pass as the real things at a casual glance. The significant feature of these “trees” is that they are capable of producing enough electricity to power an average household.

The way it is achieved is through Solar Botanic’s artificial leaf (Nanoleaf) technology which captures the sun’s radiant energy in photvoltaic and thermovoltaic cells converting the radiation into electricity. The energy production doesn’t stop there because as the leaves are blown by the wind the layers of voltaic material in the stems and twigs are moved and stretched and this movement is also converted into electricity.

The possibilities with Solar Botanic’s new technology are many, for example, areas where wind turbines are unacceptable could be populated with groves of Botanic trees capable of producing commercial levels of renewable sourced energy.

It’s still very early days for this technology and Solar Botanic is looking to select business partners for investment, R&D, manufacturing, distribution and marketing. Government bodies have already shown an interest in what is being achieved by the company.

There are still questions to be answered about the placement of artificial trees around the countryside and I would imagine that, as with all new kinds of technology, complete environmental assessments will be required before full scale production can be considered. But still, the concept is fascinating.