MANATEE--Anna Maria Green Village is celebrating the Christmas season with a truly "green" Christmas tree. Already committed to using solar power and eliminating as much fossil fuel generated electricity as possible, the folks at Anna Maria Green Village did not want to use electricity to power the tree's lights. The Result? The first Zero Net Energy Tree ever seen on Anna Maria, with power for the lights generated by the sun.
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| Tom Stockebrand |
Tom Stockebrand, the village's local solar expert, took a very simple solar panel, generating 175 Watts of energy over five hours. He hooked it into a series of 24-volt batteries to store the energy and an inverter, which converts the energy into an electrical current to turn the tree lights on. The tree lights were set onto a timer from 6:00p.m. to 11:00 p.m. each night. Five hours of sunshine charges the batteries. The lights go on when the sun goes down and there are five hours of electricity to light the lights.
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| Anna Maria Solar Christmas Tree |
For more information on the Anna Maria Historic Green Village and the Green initiatives on Anna Maria Island, please click here.
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