Sen Chang and her team of engineers at YOLK have a mission to bring solar to everyone in the world, especially for people in Africa and people involved in outdoor activities. After a few projects pushing the innovation side of solar, the group moved on to service projects and created the Solar Cow. East Africa was chosen as a target zone because much of the population there lives on less than $2 per day and has very little access to electricity, but much of their monetary transactions are done using mobile phones. This reliance on electricity for funds without a reliable source of power causes much of daily life to focus around walking to a charging shop and paying to fill a phone's battery.
SunMade Cheese is YOLK's system of a solar panel and solar powered accessories. The Cheese Plate is the solar panel, generating 5 Volts and 1.2 Amperes - the plate was built to be similar to a standard wall charger. The USBrie section of the panel has a USB port and a connector for the Solar Milk powerbank. The powerbank has a battery capacity of 2900 milliAmp hours, with 5 Volt and 1.5 Ampere input and output. The Swiss block consists of a Bluetooth / FM Radio, a hand-crank generator and a smaller solar module. When combined with the Solar Milk, the Ricotta Torch is a flashlight with adjustable intensity, and the Cacio Kindler is a plasma lighter. Each of the separate units connects to the Cheest Plate with embedded magnets for easy storage.
Every pledge made for SunMade Cheese through this Kickstarter campaign will result in one Solar Milk powerbank sent to a child in Africa. Solar Cows are placed in village schools and several powerbanks can be placed in each cow. YOLK hopes to be a part of the solution of the social problems facing nations like Kenya and Tanzania - child labor, education and lack of energy infrastructure are all connected. The designs for the Solar Cow are quirky and humorous while keeping slick form and functionality. I'm happy that no language barrier existed that could keep the pun 'USBrie' from the world. The campaign ends on October 25 and if successful units are currently scheduled to ship in February 2019.