Literature Review
2.4 Challenges faced by Designers in PIPV Product Development
(Wamukonya & Davis, 2001); Youm et al. (2000) highlight the contribution of off-grid electricity towards increased socializing (Youm, Sarr, Sall, & Kane, 2000).
In the section to follow, we examine the literature to study the intervention made in the innovation of PIPV product development.
It is essential to establish a connection between solar PV technology and new product development and identify the scope and challenges of Industrial Design intervention in contributing to enhanced user experience and commercial viability of the developed products.
It implies that during the product conceptualization stage, the designer is expected to be reasonably well informed on various aspects of the technology, the materials, processes, technical feasibility and economic consideration to make informed decisions in the conceptualization of the product or product system. Poor conceptual design can never be compensated for by well-detailed design. So, it is essential to consider the concept generation phase as critical while thinking about the life cycle of any product (Hsu &
Woon, 1998).
Further, in another study, ‘Towards a Selection Method for Designing Alternative Energy Systems in Consumer Products’, Bas Flipsen et al. (2004) highlight the challenges faced by the designer and design engineer engaged in new product development. They suggest that the design engineer/ product designer needs data or information while ideating and generating conceptual solutions. Technical data such as specific properties of alternative power sources like fuel cells, solar cells, and to a lesser extent – human power. Some of these are made available widely in published literature. However, these publications are mainly based on ‘technology-push’ instead of ‘consumer demand’, making them difficult to comprehend and assist in design decision-making.
Their study highlights the shortcoming in utilizing such information because:
- The available data is very detailed and unsuitable to use in the early phases of the design process.
- Information about PV systems is available in handbooks, mainly for larger standalone systems, or in the form of tech sheets from the OEMs.
- The tech sheets cannot be used during the concept and system-level design phases and should be translated to more usable parameters.
- Data made available by experts in the field is often of such detail that it is hardly possible to use without much interpretation.
Considering the diverse knowledge domains that it draws from, their study reveals that the data about solar PV technology presented and made available is very scientific, making it ineffective for product designers to use during concept generation. Their study proposes an
interface to communicate technical data (‘united in knowledge base’) accessible and valuable for the Design Engineer (Flipsen, Jansen, Bremer, & Veefkind, 2004).
It can be argued that these findings could be one of the reasons that deter industrial designers the undertaking PIPV product development. This shortcoming highlights a significant gap that this research must help to address.
It is proposed to examine and address this need in the later chapter/s that can outline a model and develop a user-friendly interface that will help the design engineers/designers translate and communicate technical data in an accessible and valuable form.
Figure 2.11 summarizes graphically the need for developing the interface to communicate technical data that presents accessible and valuable parameters for design engineers/product designers.
Figure 2.11 An interface to communicate technical data to accessible and valuable parameters for Design Engineers
Such an interface will also be very useful for the product designer working on a human- centred approach to product development.
Other studies have similarly attempted to understand the problems faced by designers while dealing with new technologies like solar photovoltaics. Menno Veefkind et al. (2004), in
their study, ‘Industrial Design and PV-Power, Challenges and barriers’, highlight the role of industrial designers in developing new solar-powered consumer and personal products.
It goes into the specific problems industrial designers experience when designing solar- powered products. Their study aims to identify problems in terms of methodology, knowledge, and tools that industrial designers face when developing PV- based, solar- powered products. Similarly, the assessment of product ideas based on energy balance was experienced as very difficult by the industrial designer. It highlights the need to make energy balance understandable to the product designers.
The study by Ana Mestre and Jan Carel Diehl (2003), ‘Design guidelines for integrating renewable energy into consumer products’, identifies the need for guidelines when integrating renewable energies like human power, fuel cells, and solar PV power in consumer products. As per this paper, they see applying these new energy technologies to product design moving from an experimental phase toward a discipline in Industrial Design. Hoed (2003), on the other hand, suggests that structural knowledge regarding identifying and integrating renewable energy technologies into products is needed for both technology developers and industrial designers. This study introduces a checklist for the designers to select renewable energy sources according to the problem and context. Their analysis shows that energy technologies are also a matter for the designer to make decisions. Decisions have their consequences, and consequences touch the future and quality of life for the next generations.
Reinders, A. H., Diehl, J. C., & Brezet (2013), in their book ‘The Power of Design: Product innovation in sustainable energy technologies’, offers an introduction and practical guide to product innovation, integrating key topics necessary for designing sustainable and energy-efficient products using sustainable energy technologies. Outlined in this book are various innovation methods from the perspective of sustainable energy technologies with case studies about product designs from rural and urban scenarios. These methods and case examples offer directions for a context-specific consideration in adapting to the Indian rural context.
Two other studies, viz. ‘Options for photovoltaic solar energy systems in portable products’
(Reinders, 2002) and ‘Designing PV powered LED products-Integration of PV Technology
in innovative products’ (Reinders, de Boer, and Winter, 2009) focus specifically on the development of PIPV products. The former highlights the increasing opportunities for developing PIPV products in high-power applications due to their falling costs and economic viability, while the latter emphasizes the market opportunities for developing novel business models through innovations in products and services using LEDs and PIPV technologies.