Design, Production and Materials of Pv Powered Consumer Products - the Case of Mass Production

Though many options exist, the application of integrated PV systems in mass produced consumer products is still unusual and rare [1]. Therefore, to date, design and manufacturing aspects of product-integrated PV systems have been explored only to a very limited extent. The requirements for the design of consumer products are evidently different from those for PV systems. Moreover, product designers and manufacturers are unaware of the use of PV cells in consumer products. Hence, the technical challenges of meeting space constraints and increasing performance [2] might be huge for PV system integration in consumer products, but the challenge of implementing PV cells in industrial design processes of mass manufacturing of consumer goods might be bigger. Therefore, we assess how industrial design methods, new materials and production processes can be applied in order to better integrate PV cells in consumer products. A number of possible methods and processes are presented and suggestions are given for further research and development.