Designing PV powered LED products - sensing new opportunities for advanced technologies

This study covers the design of innovative product concepts based on a combination of PV and LED technology. The products were developed in a project that took place in 2008 and 2009 during a cooperation of the University of Twente with Philips Lighting. It is shown that surprisingly unpredictable - yet technically feasible - PV powered LED products can be designed by carefully selected industrial design methods and an open view towards potential applications. In this scope innovation is not just a matter of implementing advanced technology in existing products, but particularly a matter of sensing new opportunities which are created by the combination of new technologies such as LEDs and PV technology. The PV powered LED product concepts range from small products, like watches, remote controls and other electronic handhelds, to large-sized products such as tents. In this paper it is shown how the concepts have been developed and they will be visualized by high key renderings. Also attention will be paid to the prototyping a few product concepts to evaluate their functional requirements.