Hi there!
We are Sara Plaga and Kim-Joar Myklebust, founders of Levante.
We come from two different countries, Italy and Norway, we grew up with a passion for travel and nature.
We like discovering the world by sailing boat and camping car, living an essential and meaningful life to limit waste and ecological impact.
The idea of the Origami Solar Panel started from a frustration of ours.In our travels we have often faced a need that has not yet been fully satisfied. Having clean energy anytime, anywhere we are.
To solve this problem we created Levante.
Origin Story
We met in a music festival in Denmark in 2009 and since then we have been traveling together, living in 10 different cities around the world, meeting amazing people and making memories.
Life brought us to settle own with a 9-5 employee job, we got married, struggled many years to have kids and lived a life planning for the future.
When our first daughter finally arrived, we realised it was time for a change.
One day in 2021 we decided to quit our jobs, start a new chapter in life and created our startup Levante, while having a one-year-old daughter and another one on the way.
The name Levante is synonymous of our first daughter’s name Aurora and represents the sun rising East, hope, energy and a new beginning.
Be the change you want to see in the world
Now we are growing a family, a startup, a team and a product following the values of freedom, transparency, respect, collaboration and impact. We believe that as humans and as a company we are responsible to take a step every day towards a better planet and, as Gandhi said, be the change you want to see in the world.
The story of Levante
In our travels by sailboat and RV, we have often faced a need that has not yet been fully satisfied. Having clean energy anytime, anywhere we are. Several times we ran out of power and the solar panels were never enough to cover our needs, simply because we didn’t have enough space to install more solar.
The current solar panel solutions that we installed had too many limitations. Rigid solar panels, whilst powerful, are bulky, heavy and constrained to a permanent installation. This greatly reduces the number of applications where a rigid panel is a suitable solution, especially in a mobile context. Portable solar panels, on the other hand, are too flimsy, still bulky and just not powerful enough to make a meaningful contribution to covering the energy requirements needed when travelling.
This is when the idea of Levante came to our mind: How can we have more solar panels without using more space? We found the solution taking inspiration from the origami solar panels used on the satellites.
The origami technique allowed us to develop a rigid surface that could be folded in a very compact and portable structure.
Why not make a solar using this artistic technique?
In February 2020, our very first prototype was born from paper to become a mobile energy source. In 2021 after a validation phase we founded the startup and started working on the product concepts with several prototypes.
Since then, we have been partnering with Sailing Uma, a well known brand by Dan and Kika, international design consultants with significant experience in the sailing industry, also known for their Youtube channel with global reach Sailing Uma.
They are a valuable partner, but mainly precious friends for us.
Dan and Kika believed in our idea since the beginning and supported us in the development of our product as advisors and tester of the different technologies, from a plywood concept to the working prototype that is now installed on boat Uma.
They are a valuable partner, but mainly precious friends for us.
Dan and Kika believed in our idea since the beginning and supported us in the development of our product as advisors and tester of the different technologies, from a plywood concept to the working prototype that is now installed on boat Uma.
From paper to power
The evolution of the product
From the original concept to the pre-series product, our panel has been developed and tested in the outdoors in collaboration with nautical experts Dan and Kika from Sailing Uma.
Since the test of the prototype on Uma, the product has been optimized and engineered with the collaboration of the automotive engineering studio ManEvotech in Italy.
The product is now available in a special pre-series limited edition.
First prototype
February 2020 - Milan, Italy
Proof of concept in plywood
August 2021 - Reykjavik, Iceland
Working Prototype
April 2022 - Bilbao, Spain
Product optimization with Italian engineering firm
October 2022 - Turin, Italy
Origami preview at METS Show
November 2022 - Amsterdam, The Netherlands
