World’s largest solar tree record smashed

From pv magazine India

Guinness World Records has confirmed the world’s largest solar tree has been installed in India.

The construction, which has 309.83m² of solar panel surface, has been constructed at the Centre of Excellence for Farm Machinery, Ludhiana, in Punjab by the Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, which is part of the government’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.

The structure, which has smashed the previous solar tree record of 67m² of panel surface, has a generation capacity of 53.6kWp and can generate an estimated 160-200kWh per day.

Harish Hirani, director of the Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, said: “These solar trees have wide applications such as distributed power generation to cater [to] the needs of different integrated farming activities of charging e-tractors, e-power tillers, and EV [electric vehicle] charging stations; running agriculture pumps for irrigation needs; solar-based cooking systems for food preparation at the farm site; and powering the cold storage needs of the farm produce, thereby increasing the shelf life [of the goods].”