The 'strawberry tree': a public mobile charger solar powered

You're outside, away from home, desperate because the battery of your mobile phone is empty and you have several pending calls. The citizens of Belgrade and need not worry: you can load it for free on the street with a device that works with solar energy.

What mystery Belgrade street store? Host a 'Strawberry Tree' ( strawberry tree ), a brainchild of a group of young people who designed and built a public charger mobile phones, tablets, MP3 players, cameras and other portable devices powered by solar energy.

The invention was awarded last year in the competition in Brussels 'EU Sustainable Energy Europe' on the reduction of public consumption of energy, and has achieved a number of national awards.

"Our goal was to bring renewable energy to all people, closer to all, "said Milos Milisavljevic, the main inventor of the 'Strawberry Tree', an energetic and ambitious student of electrical engineering 22 years .

The operation of the system sounds simple. "The sun that reaches us is converted into solar panels into electricity, which passes through the 'strawberry tree' and enters the cell, "he explains.

"The energy that is generated during the day and not eaten, is stored in the storage battery so the system can work well at night , when it is cloudy , when it snows, "he says.

The sun that reaches us is converted into electrical energy solar panels, which passes through the 'strawberry tree' and enters the phone charger, inspired by the tree as an important ecological and a design of understated elegance, is the trunk of a metal, wooden benches that surround it, cables for different types of portable devices, and a metal roof on which they are placed solar panels. "The basic idea is derived for the tree, and hence its name. The tree uses sunlight to produce oxygen, and our tree used to generate the energy," he said.

The mobile phone was the key, because "everybody has," and only in Serbia, a country of some 7.5 million inhabitants, there are 10 million .

Consumption are small, but if you add the energy of moving 5,000 million, estimated in the world, is no longer enough, he says.

The Tree of strawberries' reaches a 80% energy efficiency , and ordinary chargers only 20%.

It also has an educational aspect because it brings users to the concept of sustainable energy and social one, because all three in the country have been installed in streets or places frequented its banks and people meet, chat and exchange views while waiting that the batteries charge.

In Serbia, the charger has been installed also in the northern city of Novi Sad, and Obrenovac, 35 kilometers east of Belgrade where the largest thermal power station in the Balkans.

"By 2012, we intend to export shippers , install at least one, modestly, for starters, out of our country, and we hope to become a reality, "said Milisavljevic.

The team of eight students of electrical, mechanical, architectural and colleagues say they want to make the world a better place by contributing what you can and ask everyone to give a small contribution because it "may come up with something great." "What matters is that people understand, because you think you alone can not do anything and therefore does not have enough motivation," he explains.