Today’s cool breakthrough comes from a 13-year-old kid who discovered a more efficient way to collect power from the sun:
My investigation asked the question of whether there is a secret formula in tree design and whether the purpose of the spiral pattern is to collect sunlight better…
I designed and built my own test model, copying the Fibonacci pattern of an oak tree. I studied my results with the compass tool and figured out the branch angles. The pattern was about 137 degrees and the Fibonacci sequence was 2/5. Then I built a model using this pattern from PVC tubing. In place of leaves, I used PV solar panels hooked up in series that produced up to 1/2 volt, so the peak output of the model was 5 volts. The entire design copied the pattern of an oak tree as closely as possible…
I compared my results on graphs, and they were interesting! The Fibonacci tree design performed better than the flat-panel model. The tree design made 20% more electricity and collected 2 1/2 more hours of sunlight during the day. But the most interesting results were in December, when the Sun was at its lowest point in the sky. The tree design made 50% more electricity, and the collection time of sunlight was up to 50% longer!
Bravo to this boy. Using the sun for energy has always seemed promising because it’s such a giant mass continually sending its rays our way, but right now solar power still isn’t good enough for mass production. It’s getting better, but modern solar panels still don’t produce very much energy for their size. I’ve always suspected we are far from reaching our peak on solar energy, though, and it’s just a matter of how quickly we can improve their efficiency. Looks like this kid is helping us out.
A few random thoughts… Larger populations can certainly lead to problems, but it also increases the number of people out there serendipitously discovering stuff like this that could potentially lead to vast improvements for lives around the globe.
This has implications for research too. On the one hand, I doubt this kid had access to the millions of dollars being thrown at renewable energies these days (so how much does government need to be involved in this?). On the other hand, this kid would not have been able to make his discovery if he wasn’t fortunate enough to have access to the instruments and materials that he did (so how many other scientist children out there could be discovering things if we gave them more access to such tools?)
Regardless, it’s fascinating stuff. Fibonacci strikes again!