Ivan Mrvoš, a 20-year old electrical engineering student from Solin near Split in Dalmatia, developed a prototype solar bench, with support by the municipal authority. The invention is shockproof, it is equipped with four chargers for mobile phones and tablets, and at night it is used as public lighting, portal Dalmacijanews.hr reported. The solar bench, installed in front of Solin’s town hall, is also a Wi-Fi hotspot equipped with air quality sensors, and it can work ten days without sun, the inventor claims.
Project’s author, who studies in Split, said he got his idea after winning at last year’s Entrepreneurship Camp in his hometown. „There I presented my LED chairs, each equipped with a mobile phone charger. They were battery-powered and they could change colours. Then the idea started to develop and this bench was the result,“ Mrvoš explained. He and his two friends and fellow students presented the e-bench project to the Town of Solin, which financed the construction, first of its kind in Croatia. Talks are underway to install several other solar benches in Solin.
Planning and construction lasted for four months, and the cost of one such item is two to three times bigger than of a regular wooden bench, even though the prototype cost up to HRK 30,000 (EUR 3,960), Mrvoš said and added the Smart Bench concept brings savings because no maintenance is necessary and the system is automatic.
