30-Foot Solar Sunflowers Provide Functional Art in Austin

Artists Mags Harries and Lajos Héder planted 15 of these 30-foot “sunflowers” along a bike path in Austin, Texas. The sunflowers are covered in solar panels and gather energy during the heat of the day. The energy is then used to power the LED lights at night and light up the bike path below. The arrangement has about 15 kilowatts leftover to contribute into the city’s grid each day. Entitled “Sunflowers, An Electric Garden”, the project was designed to cover up unattractive truck docks behind a strip mall and has clearly taken on a life all its own. [via Dvice]