Since plants have been populating this earth for the past 475 million years I think they have evolved to gain the most sun with their greenery. If scientists used heat sensors to find the hot spots of trees and trim all of the leaves that don't quot;providefor the plant, then maybe that trimmed tree could be used to become a solar quot;panelquot;. I believe that each individual leaf could be replaced by a small solar panel and the wood of the tree would be wiring that would root all of the solar panels to a generator.
solar panels do not use generators, but i like your idea, very creative.though i don't see the practicality of this being used commercially, i think it would make a great solar promotional piece though! off-subject, it is time we stop looking at the upfront costs of things and start looking at what the long term costs are. most green-technology, although expensive at first, end up saving tons of resources and actually increase profits of businesses! studies show that people who work in a green building tend to be happier which benefits health, more excited to go to work due to the business's environmental ethics, are more productive because of natural lighting, and are more efficient because more work is getting done. green buildings can actually boost the efficiency of a business! thus saving tons of money and reducing tons of waste. Doesn't this just make sense to you?
From the vantage point of a scientist and an engineer, you have a whole host of problems to overcome. The mass of solar cells cannot be supported by most leaves much less allow the leaves to turn toward the sun as they naturally do. The wood and other structures of a tree are terrible conductors and wouldn't serve as efficient power transmitters. There are issues of damaging the health of the tree by interrupting the process of photosynthesis in favor of solar energy collection, and many other issues. However, I can tell you that solar power does use several principals that you have observed in trees. For example, solar collectors are almost always oriented to face toward the sun. Many adjust with the time of day and seasons to be optimally oriented to collect the sun's rays. Much like leaves in many plants are not static but change position to optimize their angle to the sun. Also, many solar cells are now designed with a membrane structure which offer several advantages. So you see many of your observations have found their way into practical application in solar power production.
I don't know much about solar power. This does however seem to be a very interesting idea. But I'd imagine that the complexity of building such a structure would be far more difficult that just laying thousands of large panels in an area. The shadow from higher panels may also have an adverse affect on the lower panels. Consider the tiny panels that do provide energy and compare them to a large panel that is easier to make.
