Sistine Solar Parklet Rendering
Sistine Solar, a startup currently housed in the Urban Future Lab, in New York City and at Greentown Labs in Sommerville, MA, wants to outfit street furniture around the world with artistic solar panels. The solar panels will combine utility and beauty. They will be able to power a cell phone, a street sign or a car. Sistine Solar has an artist on board that designs the panels, so they will be quite pleasant to look at. FattedGoose talked to Ido Salama, a co-founder of Sistine Solar to find out how his startup will bring solar to the masses.
The idea for Sistine Solar was born over a beer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, Salama and co-founder, Senthil Balasubramanian, would talk about how to make solar more ubiquitous. The two were frustrated that solar energy wasn’t everywhere as an everyday part of life. The co-founders thought that the best way to make solar panels more accessible was to make them pleasing to the eye. The idea was to make solar panels as accessible as cars or cell phones through design, Salama said,
More than just utility, emotional connections to objects compel actions, we care about communicating with the user, we want you to love these objects and we want people to love solar.
The company focuses on manufacturing solar panels specifically made for street furniture. Aside from the fact that the street furniture is a $5 Billion market, city and municipal officials are really excited about the idea of bringing sustainability to their cities. Sistine Solar interviewed 50 different officials about their outlook on incorporating solar in their municipalities. They found that 93% had a strong desire to show case their commitment to sustainability.
Sistine Solar’s Solar Panels
The solar panels the startup uses contain polycrystalline cells, which have been around for over 50 years and are known for their robustness, they generally have a 25 year warranty. However, the company is keeping their platform open to incorporate new cell technology. The PV panels are produced in Massachusetts because according to Salama,
We want to understand the manufacturing and control for quality, a lot of things we are doing haven’t been done before we want to test it first. That model doesn’t work when manufacturing in china.
They are also currently more expensive than regular panels. The company justifies the price because they feel that their panels will provide an added benefit to cities by creating an esthetic value.
What’s Next For Sistine Solar’s Solar Panels?
The startup currently has a letter of intent from the one of the largest street furniture manufacturers to introduce the solar panels in a pilot project. Salama would not disclose where or with whom, because the contract is still sensitive. Salama explained that the letter of intent means that street furniture manufacturers are interested in installing the furniture decorated with Sistine Solar’s panels and that the project can commence. Usually the roll out of a project like that develops in stages, so we won’t see pretty solar panels everywhere at once, they will be in a few locations at first. A separate pilot project featuring Sistine Solar’s panels will be appearing next week in Boston as well.
There are many possibilities for Sistine’s panels. They can be a perfect medium for artists to come together and create street art installations in a particular city. According to Salama, since the cost of creating any design is the same, the startup is very open to partnering with artists in the future,
Recently Sistine Solar was approached by a visiting artist, Wilhelmina Peragine, who teaches environmental science in an underserved high school in Boston. The company was asked to provide their solar panels for a mini park that will be created out of two parking spots by the art class. The students are funding their project through a Kickstarter campaign. Sistine Solar hopes to be involved in more social entrepreneurship projects in the future.
Street Furniture Is Getting A Makeover With Solar Panels #Solar #SistineSolar Sistine Solar, a startup currently housed in the Urban Future Lab, in New York City and at Greentown Labs in Sommerville, MA, wants to outfit street furniture around the world with artistic solar panels.