Genius, insight, and flashes of brilliance are not the sole domain of the scholar capable of passing tests based on rote...but rather the result of intuition and creativity... in short the ability to think. A 7th grader in NY just won a "Young Naturalist Award" for his AMAZING insight into trees, the use of solar panels, etc. Read his paper (short).

http://tinyurl.com/3zs9v3y

It's a detailed observation and an impressive piece of research and testing. Especially for a 13 year old kid.

I'm not so sure it leads to the conclusion that solar panels should be arranged like leaves on a tree.

Tree shapes are effected by many other factors than the sun's movement. Wind can play a major role in shaping a tree.

Use of air is another consideration. Air circulating around their leaves helps keep mold from growing on them and killing them off.

Trees take up water by transpiration. Air circulation speeds the loss of water through leaves which, in part, powers that transpiration.

He does address the problem of fixed panels. Good, because leaves move with the sun. It's not as noticeable on trees in the course of a day as it is with sunflowers, but they do move. Motorizing all those solar panels is going to eat up some of any increased power collected by having them in tree form.

Being at multiple angles does not keep snow off of solar panels. It may provide a a small benefit in a light dusting of snow, but given enough snow, it will collect in significant quantity on anything not vertical. Dust and pollen are other things to consider that are more likely to more often collect on the panels. Slanted panels may not collect a pile of dust, but it only takes so much before so much more doesn't matter any more. And you can only slant them so much before they won't be in a good position to collect light anymore.

Leaves can bend to slough off snow. That may be possible with solar panels. They could be mounted on something flexible and droop like leaves to allow gravity to pull the snow off and then spring back into position. That would be neat.

Solar panels that produce electricity (photovoltaic panels) using hi-tech manufacturing processes are expensive and hard to dispose of cleanly. Unless an industrial-scale biological version is developed, I see them in the future as high-tech toys.

Of much more use is the local heat-collecting solar panel, which requires simple plumbing in a domestic setting. There are many of this type on Tenerife.

Serious solar power stations generally use arrays of reflectors and steam turbines. I think there should be more of them. The reflectors are very large and efficient, so the motors that move them use only a tiny percentage of generated power.

Here in Tenerife, we have the largest Solar power station in Europe that uses photovoltaic cells. Here's a satillite view of it:



There is as wind farm next to it that's really prominent and ugly, but the solar panels are inconspicuous from ground-level.

It generates over 12 megawatts, and because of our year-round sunshine the output is reliable.

It was mainly funded and built by a Japanese company. http://www.sumitomocorp.co.jp/english/special/project_02/002.html

I wonder if seagulls ever try to land on that lake o solar panels.

We see solar panels on traffic signals and oil and gas pipeline monitors around here.

Unmanned offshore platforms use them a lot to power the navigation lights that let boats know where they are.

Aint: You reminded me of the real usefulness of photovoltaic cells as an alternative to batteries in remote places.

We don't get many seagulls in Tenerife but Cory's Shearwater birds come inland sometimes. Locally they are known as 'wacka-wacka' birds because of their strange-sounding call.