Art Seen Alliance was hired to realize General Electric’s Carousolar concept that debuted at SXSW 2011. Carousolar is a solar powered vintage carousel accompanied by a solar powered charging station and lounge. ASA was given 10 days to restore a 1926 Allan Herschell carousel, replace existing lighting with GE LED lighting, convert the motor from AC to DC, construct custom fabric elements, and paint everything bright white.

The project was featured on GE's homepage and on their EcoImagination site.
www.ge.com
www.ecomagination.com/carousolar

Powered by GE's 72-panel CdTe Thin Film Solar Field, an all-white carousel will light up the night sky with colorful TETRA Countor LED lights. Attendees can stop for a ride or give their phone some extra juice at one of GE's Solar-powered Charging Stations. With 12.8 percent aperture area efficiency as certified by the NREL, the GE Thin Film solar panels used to power the Carousolar surpass all previously published efficiency records for CdTe Thin Film and therefore mark a technological breakthrough in the solar space. This cost-competitive solar solution requires less material than alternative technologies to achieve high levels of performance, a breakthrough that's said to nearly double the Thin Film share of the solar panel market by 2013.

Carousolar has since been to Maker Faire in San Mateo, CA and South Street Seaport in New York, NY.
Maker Faire