Solar Powered Cylindrical Flower Bed Automatically Waters Plants in Japan

Katsushika Ward in Tokyo, Panasonic and Katsushika Full-of-flowers Urban Development Promotion Council have concluded an agreement on technical cooperation concerning the “Flower Merry-Go-Round” three-dimensional (3D) flower bed, which automatically waters followers by using solar electricity. The Flower Merry-Go-Round is a cylindrical 3D flower bed and is equipped with an automatic sprinkler that powers a pump with solar electricity. This technology enables to maintain and manage a flower bed at low costs. The flower bed has a 12W solar panel on its top and a programmable timer for adjusting the watering time in accordance with season and plant. The capacity of the water tank is 200L. The flower bed is developed mainly by Katsushika Full-of-flowers Urban Development Promotion Council along with local companies,

For the flower bed, 104 flower pots (13 rows x 8) can be installed, and sunlight can be evenly applied by turning the flower pots by hand (they can be turned by 360°). The height and diameter of the pot are 1,880 and 900mm, respectively. Panasonic’s mist generator will be used to the Flower Merry-Go-Round as a cooling measure so that people can stay in public spaces with comfort in summer. The power supply of the mist generator is not powered from the solar panel of the Flower Merry-Go-Round. Katsushika Ward aims to install the flower bed at the sites of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic/Paralympic Games.