Interaction design

Meet the new solar panels of a small company called ‘SMIT’. Their products are still under development but has they have promising sustainable products, because it uses the combination of solar and wind energy.

For over two years their products are under development and a patent is pending. The unique selling point of their product is that it combines both solar power and wind power. The solar panels can move and by use of both photovoltaic and piezoelectric technologies energy can be generated from both wind and sun.

The start-up company is developing two products in parallel; GROW 1 and GROW 2, let’s have a look!

Grow 1

The further development of GROW 1 is focussed on combining echnology of the photovoltaic and piezo industrt. Although it is under development it is further away from market introduction then his brother GROW 2.

Grow 2

The start-up company has developed a second product that uses both ’off the shelf products’ and by them self develop ’leaf design’ (see GROW 1). Besides this cost reduction a major advantage is how the ’leafs’ are attached, it is modular and can be done without damaging the building exteriors. The start-up company expects that future iterations will be more efficient and less expensive.

See it in action

Exposition at MoMa

After seeing some pictures of the first version (GROW 1) the Museum of Modern Art in New York wanted SMIT to exhibit this piece of work. The exhibition was opened 24th of February this year and is closed again, the online exposition however can be accessed here.

Pictures of the Design and the Elastic Mind exhibit

Fabrication of the prototype

Via Inhabitat and SMIT Design Incubator

What if?

We believe a small ‘what if?’ moment is in order. What if this product enters the market at affordable prices? The leafs can be mounted on virtually every building and since most buildings have sufficient surface available everyone could install such ‘leafs’ as they called. We can imagine it will be especially beneficial to those places that have not only a lot of sun but wind as well (Mediterranean area for instance).

The key factor for the start-up company will be making the leafs more efficient then regular solar panels. It should be possible since the leafs combine both solar and wind energy but that will determine the level of success!

We will be watching the development of the leafs closely!