Design Project 1 | Domain / Area of Opportunity

The domain that I’d like to focus on is….

Carbon emissions (especially through transportation)

This area is important/interesting to me because….

Coming from India, I see the impacts of pollution and climate firsthand through the deterioration of visibility and increasing temperatures. One of the largest contributors of this is

Idea: Partially solar powered cars

• Solar panels on roof and body of car
• Cars designed with efficiency in mind
• Lightweight cars for better efficiency

Idea: Solar powered bikes

• Increase top speed of bikes (pedal + solar)
• Make bikes a more attractive mode of transport, leading to less use of cars etc
• Since solar panels have low efficiency and are unable to fully power vehicles as of now, the combination of pedalling and solar power makes biking a much more enjoyable experience (compared to biking without); it becomes like a part electric scooter.
• Alternatively, a device that can simply be attached to an existing bike to give it solar power.

I also believe that through harnessing solar power, peoples’ costs reduce while using cleaner energy so that it is a win-win and there is no compromise of comfort. It is my view that the key to change behaviours to make them more sustainable is providing incentives, and if possible, linking the incentives so closely to the sustainable behaviour so that the sustainable behaviour becomes the obvious choice.