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Gizmos & Gadgets: Introducing Origami Window Blinds That Double as Solar Power Generators

April 19, 2019

April 19, 2019 – The product goes by the name Solgami, a contraction of solar and origami. It is the invention of Ben Berwick, CEO of Prevalent, an architectural startup firm located in Sydney, Australia.

What does it do?

It is a new form of window blind that incorporates the Japanese art of origami folding to serve two purposes:

bringing more illumination into the interior of offices and apartments, and
harvesting the power of photons from the Sun by turning blind surfaces into mini solar panels.

The secret of Solgami is the configurable origami shaping that is programmed into the blinds to meet the variable light conditions of urban environments today. With the majority of us residing in cities, working in office towers, and establishing our homes in high-rise apartments, access to natural lighting has become an important value proposition.

Living or working in tall glass towers can be problematic.

the need to maximize the light you get creates issues of privacy.
lighting varies based on surrounding buildings that partially block direct sunlight at different times during the day making for darker interiors that require artificial light supplementation.
exposures that have long duration exposure to sunlight force offices and apartments to deploy window coverings that cut out the light to reduce the heat produced from solar energy penetrating through windows to create a greenhouse effect.
glass towers require lots of grid-delivered energy to operate contributing to more greenhouse gases (GHGs) and anthropogenic climate change.

Berwick, who studied architecture at the University of Sydney before getting an engineering degree from The University of Tokyo, has spent time with architectural firms in Japan which seem to have inspired him in coming up with window blinds that do origami folds.

In inventing Solgami he addresses the four challenges described above.

Solgami’s origami folds are configurable to maximize privacy when needed.
When fully or partially open the blinds can maximize full or partial sunlight projecting it into an office or apartment and limiting the need to use electricity for supplementary lighting.
Variable origami reconfigurability allows the blinds to maximize the energy from sunlight meaning an office or apartment can create enough electricity for internal use and even a surplus to feed to the grid which addresses the fourth challenge.

The most efficient solar panels today reflect almost 66% of the light that strikes their surfaces. These are photons lost to energy generation. Solgami, however, through its origami geometric reshaping maximizes the dispersal of light for both illumination and energy harvesting. No conventional window blind whether vertical or horizontal has this type of capability.

States Berwick, “for the first time, we’re equating increased internal illumination with solar energy generation, and putting the inhabitant in control of that balance.”

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https://www.21stcentech.com

Len Rosen lives in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. He is a former management consultant who worked with high-tech and telecommunications companies. In retirement, he has returned to a childhood passion to explore advances in science and technology. More...

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