Photo: The Restart Project

As part of its podcast series, the Restart Project tells the story of ‘Solar What?’ a small solar-powered lamp that has been designed explicitly so it could be taken apart, repaired and kept in use for as long as possible.

Photo: The Restart Project

Rowan Spear, the team’s lead designer and guest on the podcast, shares insights on how designing solar products for repairability can extend their lifetimes and therefore also reduce the solar waste stream. This also provides an innovative and sustainable source of lighting for rural communities in developing countries, who previously would struggle as parts like batteries reached their end-of-life and needed replacing. Jamie’s team have also developed an off-grid Solar scorecard, which ranks solar products in terms of their repairability, recyclability or access to spare parts.

Listen to the podcast here.