14 THE TREE OF THE SUN “THE GOLDEN APPLE-TREE”

Palasta Street 2/4

The tree of the sun “The Golden Apple-Tree” is both a solar power plant and a design object of light that catches solar energy during the day with the solar batteries built in its leaves, and automatically turns on its light-emitting diodes and glows at night illuminating the surrounding public space. The research goal of the object is to create a series of products with thin-layered, self-sustaining leaves that can both collect and afterwards use the solar energy. In the future, it is expected that the leaves could be linked for a common task – charging of electric bicycles and portable electronic devices or contributing the power to a shared electric network.

Authors and implementers of the object: Tālivaldis Muzikants, Dr. Jānis Kleperis, University of Latvia Institute of Solid State Physics