Design Transfer Bonus, Solego 2.0
Client: SolarWorx GmbH
Project period: September - December 2020
»A stack of sun«
It's a successful example of the »Design Transfer Bonus«: Mehnert Corporate Design is designing the Solego product family from Solarworx, whose modular solar systems supply households and businesses in sub-Saharan Africa with green energy.
Introduction
Especially in rural Africa, many people and their businesses are cut off from the energy grid. When electricity is needed, many resort to environmentally harmful diesel generators. "Solego" is the smart alternative. The modular solar system from Solarworx uses what is available in abundance: sunlight. This feeds the batteries that supply washing machines, lamps, cell phones, razors, televisions or irrigation pumps with energy.
Design for social economy
As part of Berlin's "Design Transfer Bonus" funding program, the Berlin-based design firm Mehnert Corporate Design implemented the design of the Solego systems.
The program promotes the transfer of design expertise from companies and universities to SMEs in the social economy.
Space saving and user friendly
The challenge was to design the system in such a way that it is as durable, space-saving and easy to handle as possible. The result is vertically stackable individual units that can be plugged together depending on the need for use.
The lower and upper shells are made of recycled plastic. Between them is a middle section made of extruded aluminum.
The panel can be individually designed with the corresponding interface. To accommodate the illiterality, Mehnert Corporate Design worked with self-explanatory icons. In addition, the devices are programmed for the local languages. A corresponding audio interface guides the users.
A sustainable solution
600 million people have no access to electricity. Solego products offer a user-friendly way to generate and use energy self-sufficiently. The products are durable, affordable and made of materials that are sustainable as far as possible and easy to trace.
