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Mehnert Corporate Design GmbH & Co.KG
info@mehnertdesign.de
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Wilhelmine-Gemberg-Weg 6, 10179 Berlin

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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.

This picture shows the front and back of the Solego case.
This picture shows the stacking function of the Solego housing.

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.

This picture shows an exploded view of the Solego case.

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.