COSLR
The Future Is Now
The Solar Shield
The COSLR Solar Shield is a vehicle sun blocker with built-in solar panels to both cool down your automobile in the heat and convert the incoming sunlight into electricity to charge any electronics through its USB port. It is based on the principle of solar cell technology to generate electricity from the sun. The Solar Shield prevents the sun’s radiation from passing through car windows and overheating the car interior and utilizes solar cell technology, a clean energy option for the world.
How it Works
The COSLR Solar Shield uses a black fabric mesh that is 97% effective at blocking UV rays. This protects customers’ vehicle interiors from being bleached and damaged by the sun as well as keeping their car cool. The strong and stretchable fabric is used to hold three 3 Watts (3W) 9 Volts (9V) mini solar panels connected in series with a field-tested 27 V total output per window. The solar panels are connected to a USB Buck Converter, allowing the electricity to be outputted. The solar panels contain photovoltaic solar cells made of a semiconductor material (polysilicon) that absorb photons from the sun and liberate electrons, generating the electric current that can charge any electronic through the USB port.
COSLR & The Diamond Challenge
After creating a functional Solar Shield, I developed and planned a company "COSLR" around the idea. I created a business plan, product breakdown, pitch deck, and initial landing page for COSLR. The different product applications and revenue streams are illustrated to the right.
Now, armed with a product, plan, and prospect, I to submit my idea to the Diamond Challenge under the business/social project competition. After submitting a written concept narrative and pitch video, I made it to the semi-final round with helpful feedback and ideas for future improvements.
My Interview about the Solar Shield on 97.9 The Hill Below:
97.9 On the Hill - Solar Shield.mp32023 Earth Day Award
The National Society of High School Scholars Foundation awards students who work on an environmental project that will positively benefit their home, school, and/or community through The Earth Day Award. The Solar Shield felt like a perfect fit with its many applications and possibilities for positive change shown on the carousel below. I was one of the fourteen applicants to receive the award, and I was recognized by my local town magazine and radio station.
Solar Tracker
I decided to implement an idea that would improve the efficiency and sunlight absorbance of the Solar Shield. I researched ways to track light and coded a program that would rotate two servo motors together to position it under the brightest light. The Arduino Uno at the base averages and compares the light values from each of the four edges to decide which way to rotate the servos to get to the optimal lighting position. I built a strong base, reworked my code in Arduino, and bought strong servo motors to hold and rotate the Solar Shield. With those features, I had created the "Solar Tracker" - a combined COSLR product with light sensors on the edges of the Solar Shield to rotate towards the Sun. A thorough documentation of the steps, code, schematic, parts, and pictures of the project is on my GitHub website to the left.
A video of it working is below.
Solar Tracker Functioning.mp4COSLR LLC.
In July 2023, COSLR was officially registered as a limited liability company.