SOLARBOTANIC TREES

South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA), working with the Advanced Manufacturing and Research Centre (AMRC), has helped a company working on a Net Zero project find premises in Bradmarsh Park, Rotherham.

Solar Botanic Trees is building a prototype “tree” with photovoltaic “leaves” intended for urban locations such as town and city centres. Each “tree” would be capable of capturing enough solar energy to power individual homes or charge electric vehicles.

The technology behind the leaves, High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS), was turned into a major manufacturing process for the first time at Sheffield Hallam University and is now marketed by the industry worldwide. The National HIPIMS Centre is based at Sheffield Hallam.

The success of this business and their scale up could amount to a substantial win for South Yorkshire in the energy sector in terms of investment and jobs.

If their prototype proves successful, Solar Botanic will complete their pre-order for 200 trees. They also have additional worldwide enquiries that equate to a potential order book estimated £70 million.