Empowering communities living without electricity through affordable, quality solar panels.
Carefully designed solar panels aiming to improve access to affordable renewable energy for disadvantage communities.
When you flip a switch, the light turns on, right? Not everywhere. The ability to instantly illuminate a room is often taken for granted in developed nations, yet many communities across the globe live without this comfort.
Our client provides solar lighting products specifically for low income populations in developing countries that do not have access to electricity. Their mission is to help such communities break their dependence on inefficient, expensive, and harmful light sources by giving them sustainable, cost-effective options.
Ingenuity was involved in the industrial design of our client’s next generation of solar lighting and power kits. The new range had to be high quality, aesthetically distinctive, affordable and provide a new level of performance and usability.
It was essential that we considered the specific needs of the end users. Many of whom had little to no previous contact with electronic technology. This meant the design solution had to eliminate the technology aspect, this was achieved by minimising connectors and making it usable without language-based instructions.
To better understand the end users, Ingenuity travelled to Africa to learn about the issues faced by our client and those living ‘off the grid’. By listening to users, we were able to develop an effective and affordable range of lighting products, with vastly improved features. This included smart charging circuits to optimise energy collection from the sun, robust component enclosures, water resistance, battery level indicators, improved cabling configuration for simple installation and more.
The solar lighting and power system received nothing but positive feedback from users and it has helped empowered disadvantaged communities.
