According to Euronews.green, the metal trees are equipped with multiple branches, which end in tiny wind turbines that are designed to resemble leaves. "There is no visual pollution and we can install a bench around the tree for people to sit on", said Luc Eric Krief, owner of New World Wind, the French company behind the ‘Aeroleaf’ technology.

The metal wind turbines trees are between five and 10 meters tall, meaning that they are fairly compact and easy to install in most city areas, while their smaller size solves the drawback of bird collisions.

Instead of being connected to the energy grid, the trees can give power to the nearest building, by connecting itself directly to its electrical system. Krief, who bought New World Wind back in 2017, said that a new design is one the way, which is expected to triple power output.

Thus, at a wind speed of 12 meters per second, one single tiny turbine could generate 1 MW of power in a year. A tree with 36 installed turbines could produce 36 MW of power every single year. At a speed of 8 m/s, the same wind tree could produce 18 MW of energy per year, enough to power a four-person household, which would reduce the house's carbon footprint by over 12 tons in a year.

Solar and wind hybrid trees, available already in some parts of the world, can make use of both sources of energy, one during the day and another both at day and night.

Photo source: New World Wind

"Solar panels can work between 10am and 4pm… with our technology, we can provide energy seven days a week, 24 hours a day. And if we create more energy than we can consume during the night or day, we can store it inside the battery", Krief explained.

The Aeroleaf isn't an affordable system, however, having a price of 795 euros per turbine. A 36-turbine system would then cost almost 52.000 euros, while a hybrid system, made of 12 leaves and 12 solar panels would be 24.500 euros.

Some of the companies that already implemented this technology is L'Oreal in France and Deloitte in the US, while three residential wind trees have been implemented in the UK, the US and in Switzerland.

Photo source: New World Wind