Solar Docking Station: Bringing sustainable off-grid lighting to the BoP of Cameroon

Solar Docking Station: Bringing sustainable off-grid lighting to the BoP of Cameroon

Schouten, I.M.

Diehl, J.C. (mentor)
Neger, A.J. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Design for Sustainability

Master of Science Integrated Product Design

2011-06-29

The ‘Ndassie SDS’ is a centralized, solar powered energy station, aimed at rural communities in Cameroon, where there is very limited or no access to the electric grid. It offers a safer, healthier, more affordable, and high quality alternative to the Kerosene lamps that are still commonly being used in these regions. The system consists of the DockingStation itself - which is to be placed in a central located shop within the off-grid community - and battery powered LED lamps. Lamp owners can recharge their batteries with the SDS, against a small fee, which results in low initial investment costs, as well as providing easily accessible customer service and maintenance. During this project, a functional prototype of the SDS was created based on previously gathered contextual information. Thereafter, this prototype was tested in Cameroon where it was installed in local shops, to observe targeted users operating with the concept. An analysis of user-product interactions, and assessment of the station’s requirements in terms of flexibility, usability and producability was made, finally resulting in a redesign, in which the identified points of improvement were implemented.

BoP
solar energy
lighting

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7a8cb42a-8faa-4941-9b6d-9f0ad0e73850

2012-06-29

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2011 Schouten, I.M.