Adapted Product and Service Design – How to Work Together for a Sustainable Future?
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Presentations
Introduction
Technological features are not the only important part of successful energy systems. This session focused on the design of technology - not only on the look of a charge controller but the whole system needed.
To get an overview on this topic two lecturers introduced their perspective on the design question. Prof. Kalevi Ekman from Finland is founder of the Aalto University Design Factory and gave an general idea of what especially engineers should know about design. Noara Kebir is the Managing Director and co-founder of MicroEnergy International, a company specialized in supporting financial institutions to develop and implement energy specific programs. She gave a more detailed insight into the role of design in microenergy solutions.
Perspectives to Design
Prof. Ekman likes to pose questions. Think about this one:
What is design?
The usual picture in our minds is one of fancy, expensive and useless artefacts such as tableware or vases. If you think a little longer business-to-customer products as mobile phones and cameras might come to our minds. Design as a measure to be competitive on the market.
The design quality seems to be hard to put a finger on. Normally, engineers work with matriceses to calculate e.g. the price per kilogram of a number of products. Let's compare some numbers: A steak could cost some 20€ per kg in Finland. Another everyday product in the land o the woods is paper which costs less than 1 €/kg. To get a little closer into the topic of energy, what about a wind mill? It costs about 1.5 million euros/300 tons. So it`s price per kilogram is somewhere around 5€. The before mentioned camera comes at 1,000 €/kg and a light weight pair of glasses at 180 € per 1.8 grams, which makes 180,000 €/kg.
We obviously don't pay according to the weight of a product. To get a closer idea of what design means, Prof. Ekman presented different objects.
- Calendering machine: This machine is used in the paper making process to improve the quality of a sheet of paper. The quality can either be improved by "ironing" the sheet in a process comparable to the ironing of cloth that you might - or might not - know. The surface can also be coated by a machine which combines engineering knowledge in pneumatics, electronics and other disciplines. The first generation shows how different disciplines are meshed together into one pot. Dust and cables are everywhere. The second generation already looks different. It is designed for easier operability, cleaning and maintenance. The third generation has some resemblance with a spacecraft. No moisture or dust comes in or out. For maintenance only one big piece has to be taken away. Maintenance though can not performed by any operator but by specialists only.
- Cars: Dacia, Renault, BMW - all these producers offer different car types but what is the same in their advertisements: sure all cars have four wheels and provide the same functionability but what is most striking is that they all use aluminium wheels. That is not how cars are equipped in the shops. There you usually find steel wheels. Aluminium wheels are used in advertisements because of aesthetics nothing else.
- Tractors: To compare the outside of tractors doesn't really reveal the stunning changes in this product line. The real difference is inside. As farmers spend up till 16 hours in the tractor cabin in the main season media, space for food and drinks and a lot of information technology has been added.
- Mixer: The Kenwood Design hasn't nearly changed. It still looks quite the way it did in the 50s. But obviously there is a difference between now and then: The advertisement has no the happy housewife in focus with her supporting husband standing behind her.
- Medical machine: Another question for you: Could you easily go under this machine? If not, you have probably not been raised in the 70s because it was then this machine got awarded for it's appealing design.
- Power suit: In the introducing picture you can see Prof. Ekman pointing on a curious slide. It shows the power suit developed for a nurse to pneumatically support her to lift a patient. The article publishing this picture says the design of the prototype is not yet user friendly. Well, that is obvious but at this point, according to Prof. Ekman, it is already to late to call for designers.
The main message of this list is:
All artefacts are designed - either by professionals or by well meaning hobbyists.
No matter if process lines, hobby equipment or health care, there is always some space for different design.
The Microenergy PSS Approach
What is a PSS – Insights from Literature
What is a PSS in the Microenergy Sector?
How to design a PSS in the Microenergy Sector
To show more clearly how Product Service Systems can work in the microenergy sector, Noara Kebir explaind a typical user of a SHS.
Her chosen example was a woman in Uganda who payed 300 to 400 € to equip her house with a SHS. She not only wanted to light several rooms in her house but also to enhance her business. In one extra house she has a poultry farm. With her SHS she wants to generate heat and light to make her chicken grow faster. She also tried to sale intenet services, so she is open to new business opportunities.
Part of a product service in this case would be to connect the SHS with the various installations that are required to fulfill the described needs. The woman would also like to connect her other gadgets: DVD player, TV set and a torch. These cannot easily be connected to the DC grid that is installed for the SHS.
Limited budgets > focus on increase income, or that they have return on investment
PSS should could less than the (product and services and perhaps subsidies)
Woman SHS light poultry increase turn over farm to pay back SHS
Eco subsidize carbon finance
Design Results
- Smaller Solar Home Systems are normally bought by very poor people. They can only afford SHS when profiting from "pro-poor subsidies". Still, they will never generate profits instedad their losses will only increase when the loan period is extended. Pure economic return on investment is not high ennough from an enduser's perspective.
- Larger SHS look better from an economical point of view. People with a higher income purchase larger products and the share of the service costs decreases. To understand the importance of the service costs it is important to know that subsidies only relate to products, not to services.
From the persepctive of a developed country a good quality product seems to be the better solution than a cheap product with poor quality. The equation normally is better design - better longevity - better return on investment. But in the case of e.g. Uganda locally produced cheap batteries that are regularly exchanged are a better business case than an imported, longer lasting battery. Even if this solution is not good for the environment, from the perspective of development it is favorable because more value creation is on the local level.
But the future looks promising even for potential owners of small SHS. When the density of SHS grows and the ones with the higher income pay for the “installation” of the distribution system, service and especially transportation gets cheaper and small systems can be integrated step by step.
