I've heard that there are some pretty creative solar panels out there, but this was the first time that I had ever seen any.
Obviously it is good to have options when it comes to the production of electricity. In recent years, solar panels have made quite a name for themselves, and they are popping up in more and more locations worldwide. This was the first time that I saw some popping up like this, though.
SUN FLOWERS?
These three giant solar panel flowers are part of the City of Sturgeon Bay Solar Flair Project. I noticed them on our way back from Jacksonport, WI when we passed through Sturgeon Bay, WI. I thought that they were extremely creative and decided that it would be best to stop and check them out.
The actual solar panels on each of the units were shaped and arranged to look like petals on a flower. Eight of the "petals" were arranged around a central yellow circle. Some accent colors were placed in between each of the petals so that the "flowers" were three different colors: green, orange, and yellow.
Moreover, the pole upon which each of these units was mounted was painted green, and ran down into a "pot." The final result was a very original and creative look. As I said previously, I had never seen anything like it. I also enjoyed the wordplay on solar flares, since they called this a "Solar Flair" project.
A LITTLE INFO
This informational sign was also placed near the "Sun Flowers." It included a web address where curious and interested people could learn more about the project. Find out more here : http://www.sbunet.com/
These three units can produce over 5000 kWh of electricity per year, and they hope that these particular units will function for over 25 years. Here are some larger photos of what it said.
Have any of you ever seen anything like this before? I heard that there may be a palm tree one in Springfield, MO, but haven;t went to look for it yet.
As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:
proof-of-sun-flowers
Until next time…
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Wow great ,I always admire the people who think outside the box!
Awesome idea to shape them like this. I have never seen such creative shapes before. Maybe that way they become more attraktive to more people.
PoSF lol
Lol
Papa-pepper, is that an iron lolling??
I think its a gold lolling
he he, I just noticed that I misspelled, it was meant to be ironic. he he he.
Do they move with the sun like sunflowers do?? That would be very cool.
I think that they may, according to what @builderofcastles shared.
May be a bit more expensive to build, but not as boring as the usual square setup.
However, there is plenty of room on house roofs and so on. "Stand alone" solutions like that are not really neccessary.
Great work friend , Solar panels use sunlight as a source and generate electricity or heat. !!
We have had some like that in Austin for 10 years. They are called sunflowers i think.
very cool job , look great
great new idea for green and renewable energy source!
I love that they look like there in plant pots like real flowers.
I am amazed that solar panels are still expensive seeing how much we are seeing them now around, including cities using them. I like this design because it brings conversation and some art to the area. It also brings people in like yourself who took the time to take pictures and bring this to our attention who would have never known about it. Thanks @papa-pepper!
Wow, it's like a picture from the movie "Idiocracy" lol.
Great job @papa-pepper!
Which pic from idiocracy? I love that movie.
I was googling for pictures but none of the ones I remember are posted. It's pretty much the scene where they show that all trees and plants have been replaced by fake plastic ones 😀 😃 😄 😁 😆 😅 😂
Really? Never really watched that.
It's a MUST watch. It is hilarious1 😀 😃 😄 😁 😆 😅 😂
nice
Those are very cool and creative. Might as well have something visually interesting while producing energy eh? Love the caption "proof of sun flowers". Great post!
Not sure anyone else ever called them that, but I thought it fit.
wow wow, so beauty of coolest solar panels hahaha
Very good Very good @papa-pepper . . I like your post . . Thankyou for sharing
Wow 5000 kwh each. I often wonder why everone is not using solar energy. Depending on where you live there are govt assited rebates and programs where there is no out of pocket expense for the homeowner. The homeowner gets to save mony and support the environment. You post solves the problem of aesthetics. I just dont understand
beautiful solar panel @papa-pepper. they are very creative. all look like a giant flower. great post from papa. thanks for sharing :-)
Nice one. I have seen wind mills for electricity production ..but haven't seen this earlier..
I wonder how much those cost. This is not my field, so maybe I got my math wrong, but in 25 years, they'll have produced maybe $30,000 of electricity. Of course, that doesn't take into account inflation or changes in the price of electricity.
That is part of what I was thinking. Solar takes a long time to get a return on the investment anyway, and that is just for regular panels.
I have never seen one of those. I am surprised we don't have these here in Southern California. (I am sure we do)
Keep your eyes open, you just might.
by the way, I messaged you on steem chat. Let me know if you got it.
Cool! I've never heard of creatively shaped solar panels. I dig these solarflowers though! More aesthetically pleasing than flat panels. Not sure how practical, but anyway lol
I agree, practicality may be debatable, but they do look interesting, that's for sure!
Those are great looking. I wish more cities around where I live would get on the Solar Energy wagon--it makes so much sense.
Nice information :)
We have many was to make solar power and we should be using more of this technology to help save or world. This is a beautiful display and I hope to see more in the future, thanks for sharing this post @papa-pepper.
I haven't seen anything like this before. I thought they were coconut trees. They were sunflowers
This is very cool!! As technology moves forward, I think we will have more and more smaller, but highly efficient panels. Here in CA, many parking lots are now being covered with solar panels. This is great in two ways. The cars can be parked in shade and aren't crazy hot and lots of electricity is produced.
This is great for hospitals and such. If the power supply gets interrupted, they can keep on going - hopefully, they have some batteries as part of their system.
Interesting. I think that is a great way to provide shade!
very inspiring, Earth is a great place to live and we have to protect it as much as we can as one. More than that, when someone comes with such a beautiful idea is awsome, he was like protecting the Earth and trying to trick him, that those cold metal objects are, actually, flowers he created. Thank you!
Enjoy @nature.art!
Well, the most important, engineering reason, of why they look like this is that they are a sun tracking solar array. (they follow the sun) And so they had to placed on a pole that supported the whole thing from a single point.
After that, the arrangement is just for aesthetics.
I find that sun tracking is usually not worth it. It is a lot of maintenance for not a lot of gain.
Further, solar panels have a passive effect that can be put to great use.
If you have hot summers, putting solar panels on your south facing roof can lower the temperature inside by 7 degrees. Just because the panels shade the roof.
Interesting! A truly chin-rubbing contribution - I enjoyed it - thanks! :) I never thought about the extra hassle of maintenance a rotating array might create, or the effect of shading (and I guess insulation for keeping heat in in colder climes?) that the panels themselves would have. What are your thoughts on passive solar?? You seem like you might be a small encyclopedia of engineering knowledge.
Making an aluminum can window heater is cheap and very effective.
(You make a stack of aluminum cans. You poke holes in the bottom and tops of each can so that the warm air can rise through the stack of cans. You paint the hole thing black. You put it in a sunny window, and it will heat the room. No power.)
That is passive solar.
Now, for the more complex things,... it all depends on where your house is. Too far north and you do not get enough sun, and you get too much cold to have a bunch of windows.
Too far south and any south facing room with lots of windows will be a sauna (at minimum) during the summer.
In the middle, a south facing greenhouse structure can add heat to the house during cold months. South facing windows are also really good. Having those south facing windows shine light onto a heat sink (like a big rock, or a barrel full of water) is really good.
But then you have to balance all of this with shading all of these windows in the summer time. (deciduous trees and awnings that are the right length)
Overall it is a complex problem where you got to figure out the right balance. But when it is in balance, you get a comfortable house with a lower heating bill.
However, it is often hard or impossible to retrofit to an existing house. So, looking at huge mass wood burning stoves or rocket stoves is often easier.
Of course, all of this is after you insulated and sealed your house well.
I've seen houses with big rocks in them before, I hadn't connected that they might have been acting as slow release heat sinks. I also hadn't thought about the role of deciduous trees giving shade in summer and letting light through in winter.
Interesting.
In the British Isles there's just so many old houses with terrible insulation, it's quite a chronic problem. And with the cost of heating skyrocketing I think it's becoming ever more important to get these considerations right. I think I'm going to try my hand at an aluminium passive heater the next time I'm home! Cheers
Interesting! Just by blocking the sun they can help cool the house, very cool! (LOL)
In the last decade, solar has seen an average annual growth rate of about 68%. Statistics like these do indeed give me hope that people are doing their best to protect our planet. Its often easy to forget that many of us ar doing our best to take care of the earth. This post helps me be thoughtful of that fact. Thanks for that @papa-pepper. Upvoted as usual.
I like your posts, I wait for your next post @papa-pepper
Now those look cool! But as long as they work it is a win win for energy! Thank You for sharing the pics on this!
haha Freakin love it @papa-pepper should have both more sun and solar panels here in norway ;)
Way to blend them into and even improve the natural surroundings! Great stuff. They are now coming out with translucent solar panels so you can start using them for roofs and green houses...
I've honestly never experienced solar panels at work before. Do they generate a shitload of energy?
I am wondering if they close up at night? No....really. We have some strong winds in northwest Kansas and one of our moving solar arrays was slightly damaged this last spring due to some high winds (there was a tornado touching down 7 miles south of us).
I love the look. Sunflower or throwing star.
Those are super cool. Out here they make the cell towers look like fake palm trees.
Could solar-art be an upcoming big thing? Would be interesting, as long as it is still functional.
Solar panels are really cool. Ok, so it takes a while to get a financial return on your energy costs (unless you live in NZ and have to pay stupid amounts for electricity). But they are a really good backup supply, and offset for the costs of electricity.
It would let you do things like - draw from your own batteries during the day when the power is expensive and then use mains power overnight when the power is cheaper.
We don't seem to have a lot of solar powered stuff out this way, because we have English weather (the explorers bought it with them I think). But we do have a lot of wind, so there are wind farms all over the place. It would be nice if someone got creative with them and made them a bit more attractive....
Wonderful....
I want to try it too
Those are cool! Who'd of thunk they would do that in Wisconsin! : ) I went to school in Madison so I'm very fond of the State!
Very creative idea! They should name them Sunflowers yes. Appropriate name it is.
Plus this would be a nice add on for a mining farm :)
That is incredible I like this what an idea. There is so much out there. I want solar panels but here in the UK your not allowed to have power from them you have to connect to the grid still. When there are power cuts you still without power nuts. Yet people put up with it don’t get it at all :)
Hey, @papa-pepper! I haven't seen any quite like this, but I have seen one that was more of a cup shaped reflector dish that directed the sun rays from multiple angles to the centrally located round panel. These were small enough to mount several on a roof top. have been researching for a while now and it seems no matter what design you have, the only way to significantly cut the costs is to build the whole system, including panels, from scratch and even then it will be a long time before you see a significant return on your investment of time and money.
Very cool. I'd heard of different types/styles of solar panels before but hadn't seen any before until this post. :D I really love the "sunflower" idea. :D If I had the money for solar, which will happen someday, I'd love to get some for my yard too. :D It would be even cooler if I used steem to buy them. :D
it is a win win for energy
I really like your post
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A bit expensive but very pretty to look at. I'm just concerned, what happens when a hurricane comes along?
cool idea. but i wonder if it will be affordable to general public.
Using renewable energy source, we can save our planet. And this kind of creative project helps a lot. Awesome post as usual. Upvoted! :-)