Masdar City, an Abu Dhabi, UAE-based sustainability and innovation hub dedicated to making all cities a solution to climate change, has revealed a new installation called Solar Tree as its latest eco-friendly addition to its Eco Plaza.

 Solar Tree was designed as an art piece to spark public engagement around sustainability practices. It is also an example of multi-purpose urban development. It mimics a natural tree, with its slender, asymmetric columns and 16 gently curved solar panels, providing a shaded seating area while also producing clean and renewable energy. Featuring 16 bi-facial solar panels that capture sunlight from both sides, Solar Tree has a capacity of 50 kwh and feeds energy directly into the Abu Dhabi power grid. It stands at 5.5 meters tall and 10 meters wide.

The placement of Solar Tree was informed by a 2023 heat study of Masdar City. In collaboration with a start-up called FortyGuard, Masdar City collected six million data points using sensors and drones over a period of nine months. These data points provided a thermal map of Masdar City and Eco-Plaza that identified zones of high heat that needed to be addressed. Other recent measures to address hot zones in Eco Plaza include new trees, shrubs, and turf, removal of dark paving, and water features.