London Research Powers “Off-The-Grid” Lifts

images courtesy of Opulent Elevators 

Opulent Elevators, a subsidiary of Opulent Designs International, recently introduced its Opulent 800 carbon-fibre lift, marketed as “the world’s first solar-powered carbon-fibre lift.” In addition to being Net Zero, the system boasts a cabin that is a study in opulence, outfitted with vivid stone finishes such as the red jasper shown here. All of Opulent Elevators’ stone comes from Brazil or South Africa and is cut by hand and made into panels, Opulent Designs CEO Alister Bennett tells ELEVATOR WORLD UK. “It is very labour-intensive, but the result is beautiful,” he says. The majority of enquiries about the Opulent 800 come from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa and India. The company also manufactures bespoke carbon-fibre lifts for high-end yachts.

But another, perhaps less opulent, Net Zero initiative is underway: a London university with a reputation as the “U.K. equivalent of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology” was recently awarded a £9,000 research grant to explore combining bio fuels and solar energy to “take an elevator completely off the grid for applications such as pedestrian road bridges” in regions with unreliable power systems like Sub-Saharan Africa and deserts in the Middle East. Opulent Designs has already built a prototype “off-the-grid” lift in Asia, and aims to use the university research to further improve the offering and bring it to the global market.