Our battery life can’t keep up with the pace of our modern, mobile-centric lives. We’ve seen public charge stations popping up in airports, conference halls and festivals to address the problem. We've even seen Doblet, a subscription service that lets users pay a fee to charge phones in certain bars and cafes. Solarbox offers a more permanent solution by simultaneously tackling the issue of disused public space in a rather ‘meta’ way.

The concept re-appropriates the obsolete public telephone box for the 21st Century by transforming them into solar-powered charging stations. Refitted with 33-inch solar panels and a fresh coat of green paint, London’s iconic and disused telephone boxes now invite the public to charge their mobile devices free of charge: any extra costs are decked by advertising screen displays inside.

Co-founders Kirsty Kenney and Harold Craston, both recent Geography graduates from the London School of Economics, were the runner-up winners of this year’s Low Carbon Entrepreneur competition sponsored by the Mayor of London. The startup launched their first of six boxes on Tottenham Court Road last week, which are attracting an average of 85 users per day.  

"By next spring we would like to roll out another six boxes and hopefully go on to launch one outside every tube station in Zone 1 and beyond,” Kenney told Protein. “The verdict is still out on the colour change though-- that seems to be causing some debate.”