Solar-powered benches double up as chargers

Changing Environments, a MIT Media Lab spin-off, has announced the launch of Soofa – a solar-powered bench that provides people with free outdoor charging.

The benches, which have two USB ports, will provide city dwellers with solar energy to charge their electronic devices in urban places including parks, playgrounds and on sports fields, and have been designed to “help cities, campuses, corporations and resorts update their urban context for the mobile generation.”

The company is also fitting the benches with sensors to provide people with location-based information, such as air quality and noise level.

The information will then be mapped on a public platform, where users will also be able to see how many people have visited that particular bench that day, how many sit on it on average, how many solar charging hours it can provide, numbers of passersby and a weather forecast for the next four hours.

Each Soofa is given its own unique name, and Hedy was introduced to the White House last month.

“We want to reactivate the city and create a new shared social experience,” said Jutta Friedrichs, co-founder and designer of Soofa.

“We envision Soofas acting as magnets that invite people to enjoy the outdoors while reading the news, sharing a video, or catching up on email without fear of running out of power.”