Innovation

The innovation is five concrete benches that are located around the city of Helsinki and provide citizens with plug and USB sockets utilising renewable energy provided by integrated solar panels.

The bench helps to support four different UNSDGs: 7 - Renewable Energy, 9 - Innovation & Infrastructure, 11 - Sustainable Cities & Communities and 13 - Climate Action.

Inspiration

The inspiration came from an EU-project that Helen is part of called MySmartLife. They were seeking to create more possibilities for e-mobility and e-bike charging and in that way safer and cleaner mobility for the citizens and the benches allow them to charge many different devices.

The first draft of the innovation was totally different, they were going for a flower looking product where the pedals of the flower would be the solar panels. However, the direction changed and Helen decided to go with the solar panel benches instead and it gained a lot of support and ideas of improvement from the MySmartLife project.

This decision to go with an “off-the-shelf” product from an existing supplier was decided as it was a quick and effective means of providing a renewable source of energy to citizens in Helsinki, rather than having to wait for a lengthy time period for a new bench to be design and manufactured. This helped to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Number 13 - Climate Action Now - which urges the need for urgent action on climate change.

Overall impact

The innovation is fairly new, the concept bought from Ecotab is new and the benches were recently placed in Helsinki during the summer 2018. So there has only been short term effects seen at this point.

The immediate reaction from citizens of Helsinki and Helen's customers were positive towards this product. The solar panel benches gained much attention from different media sources since even if the innovation can be found in other countries they are unique and a new product in Finland.

Business benefit

In addition to HELEN`S already existing designed solar panel that they sell to their customers, it is hoped this innovation will contribute immensely towards the reduction of carbon emission in the city and be the source of improved energy. The anticipated beneficiaries of innovation are mostly customers and companies who need solutions to produce for themselves electricity in a sustainable way.

With an initial modest investment so far of about 30,000 euros for the five (5) solar benches all located in Helsinki, the scheme is currently on pilot basics pending an assessment of its general impacts and feedback from HELEN customers. A decision about a full implementation will be decided after the piloting process.

However based on the initial feedback gathered from Helsinki residents via social media and other sources, the prospects of the innovation are absolutely bright. It can be another major source of income for HELEN in addition to its job creation / investment potentials etc.

Social and environmental benefit

The most basic benefit that Solar power benches provide to the environment is that phones can be charged in a very sustainable and eco-friendly way because fossil fuel such as coal or nuclear power does not need to be used to produce electricity.

By considering the sunny period of Finnish weather, this was highly taken into account when developing solar power benches. So, people can charge their own phones for free in an environmental way regardless of weather or seasons.

Helen considered highly crowded places and installed solar power benches there such as the Market Square, Teurastamo and Allas Sea pool so that more and more people can have positive experiences with solar power benches.

To provide a sustainable positive experience to them, Helen refers to customer feedback in order to improve the quality of solar power benches. In addition to this, even if the benches were developed considering the characteristics of Finnish weather, Helen has a lot of maintenance with solar power benches whenever problems arise. For these reasons, Helen firmly assures that solar power benches will provide a positive experience to more and more people in the city regardless of season or any other issues and will be more reliable for them to use. Then, solar power benches can be scaled up further in the City.

Interview

Kristiina Siilin, Project manager