The solar tree has been installed at ‘Centre of Excellence for Farm Machinery’, Ludhiana, Punjab and is officially certified by Guinness World Records (GWR) as the Largest Solar Tree in the world. In a bid to promote usage of solar energy, CSIR- Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI) has developed the world’s largest ‘solar tree’ to convert solar energy to electricity. The solar tree has been installed at ‘Centre of Excellence for Farm Machinery’, Ludhiana, Punjab and is officially certified by Guinness World Records (GWR) as the Largest Solar Tree in the world. The total solar PV panel surface area is 309.83 sq.m in this installation, surpassing the previous record of 67 sq.m. The installed capacity of the Solar Tree is 53.6 kWp (kilowatts peak) with a capacity to generate 160-200 units per day of clean and green power.
Underlining the newly launched Solar Tree, Prof. (Dr.) Harish Hirani, Director, CSIR-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute said, “It gives us immense pleasure to announce a slew of innovative applications that will follow the Solar Tree. Being part of the Guinness World Records (GWR) as the Largest Solar Tree is definitely a feather in the cap and a booster for all the scientists who has worked on the project.” He further added that these solar trees had 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 charging station, running agriculture pumps for irrigation needs, a solar-based cooking system for food preparation needs at the farm site, powering the cold storage needs of the farm produce thereby increasing the shelf life.