Dubai’s solar powered palm trees offer beach-goers phone charging and Wifi

The Twitter caption reads: “The solar powered Smart Palm Tree provides internet WIFI service & mobile charging points for ’s public beaches & parks visitors.”

Prototypes of the tress, which are topped with photovoltaic modules on the leaves, were first introduced in Dubai in 2015. The solar power generated is enough to provide 7.2 kilowatts of energy per day.

Viktor Nelepa, Smart Palm’s founder, explained at the time: “For us, it was important to translate the important cultural identity of the date palm from being a plant that provided shelter, building materials, shade and sustenance, to our Smart Palm, designed to provide data, connectivity, energy and all in a sustainable manner.”

And the city continues to up its Wifi offering. Earlier this year the Roads and Transport Authority announced that a total of 1,314 Dubai taxis have now been fitted with Wifi and interactive screens.

Speaking on the innovation, CEO of the RTA’s Dubai Taxi Corporation (DTC), Dr. Yousef Mohammed Al Ali said: “The DTC has set a clear excellence-based approach in all projects and initiatives conforming to the highest international standards.

The introduction of Wi-Fi and interactive screens isn’t the only thing that the RTA is doing in the hopes of becoming the world’s smartest city; the company agreed to buy 200 of Tesla’s latest driverless fleet (Model S and Model X) this past February.

The pricey agreement was signed by Tesla’s founder Elon Musk and the director general and chairman of the board at the RTA, Mattar Al Tayer, also formed part of Dubai’s smart autonomous mobility strategy which aims to make 25 per cent of journeys in Dubai autonomous by 2030.