An engineering firm in eastern India's West Bengal has installed a solar tree which is one of the largest of its kind in the world.

Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI) in Durgapur has built the plant which consists of 35 solar panels that can generate between 12,000 and 14,000 units of green power.

Professor Harish Hirani, the Director of CMERI, said the world’s largest solar tree up until now is in Europe which produces 8.6 kilowatts peak (kWp) of energy daily. The newly built tree in India produces above 11.5 kWp.

Each solar tree costing Rs 750,000 ($10,251) has the potential to save 10 to 12 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission being released into the atmosphere as greenhouse gases when compared with fossil fuel-fired energy generation.

This footage was filmed on August 31.

An engineering research and development institute in eastern India's West Bengal has claimed to have developed the world's largest solar tree. Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI), Durgapur has installed the plant in its residential colony. The installed daily capacity of the solar tree is above 11.5 kilowatts peak (kWp) with an annual potential to generate between 12,000 and 14,000 units of clean and green power.

The tree was officially commissioned on August 31 at the residential colony of the institute after being set up a week before and going through trial runs.

Visuals show the various solar panels in place imitating a tree. The solar tree has been designed in a manner to ensure maximum exposure of each solar photovoltaic (PV) panel to the sunlight with having the least amount of shadow area beneath.

Professor Harish Hirani, the Director of CMERI, which functions under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), said the world’s largest solar tree up until now is in Europe which produces 8.6 kWp of energy daily, below the power generation capacity of the newly installed tree.

Each solar tree costing Rs 750,000 ($10,251) has the potential to save 10 to 12 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission being released into the atmosphere as greenhouse gases when compared with fossil fuel-fired energy generation.

The energy generation data can be monitored either real-time or on a daily basis. The director explained that the CSIR-CMERI developed solar tree has certain features which can be customized for widespread usage in agricultural activities such as high capacity pumps, e-Tractors and e-Power Tillers.

The solar tree can incorporate IOT based features, like round-the-clock CCTV surveillance in agricultural fields, recording real-time humidity, wind speed, rainfall prediction. The CSIR-CMERI developed solar-powered ‘e-Suvidha’ kiosks may also be connected to the solar trees for real-time access to the agricultural database, he added.