Globally, the honeybee population is drastically declining. Environmental organizations (UN, Greenpeace, etc) name climate change as its biggest cause. Bees, as temperature-sensitive creatures, could not adapt to the unprecedented abnormal climate. The extinction of honeybees affects not just 90% of wild flora, but also the animals and people who feed on those, and further the entire biodiversity. To spearhead the conservation of the honeybee population, we utilized solar panels to protect the honeybees from climate change by manufacturing a smart beehive: the Solar Beehive. With the Solar Beehive, we contribute to the Earth’s biodiversity, and eventually remark the B2B brand Hanwha as a sustainable brand to the public, raising the favorability and the reputation.

The Solar Beehive is a smart beehive optimized to protect honeybees from abnormal climates. What’s special about the Solar Beehive is the ‘bee-friendly design’. From the bee entrance size, depth of feed container, temperature-humidity controller position, and the exterior design, everything was designed to be ‘bee-friendly’ so that honeybee can thrive in an optimal environment.

Four smart devices (Water & Food Supply / Temperature & Humidity Control / CO2 Concentration Control / Hornet Intrusion Detection & Blocking) were installed to provide the best honeybee habitat. All electrical power is sourced from the solar panels installed on the exterior roof, without emitting carbon.

We wanted the Solar Beehive to not stop at just increasing the honeybee population in Korea. We displayed collected data from the Solar Beehive on the website so that anyone can access our data for honeybee conservation research.

The Solar Beehive collects a total of 8 categories of data. (1. Honeybee entry count / 2. Beehive interior temperature / 3. Interior humidity / 4. Interior CO2 concentration / 5. Exterior climate / 6. Fine dust concentration / 7. Hornet invasion / 8. Beehive weight)

The originality of data collected by the Solar Beehive lies on ‘Pattern Observation’. Rather than simply collecting the temperature, humidity, and climate data, we compare and analyze the external climate, the internal environment of the hive, and real-time honeybee population changes (the population changes are detected by the number of honeybees’ entry and the weight of the hive).

The Solar Beehive appropriately adjusts the interior temperature and humidity according to the collected data, supplies water and sugar when feeding activity is low, and blocks the entrance when the hornet’s frequency is detected to protect the hornet invasion and prevent the bee population loss.

Solar Beehive was launched on World Bee Day, May 20, 2022, with process film including design and production. A website was opened, sharing collected data in real-time. Following November, a paper proved the Solar Beehive’s effectiveness on honeybee growth.

Since launch, a public participation campaign started promoting planting flowers, and feeding honeybees. Nationwide, about 1,300 people voluntarily planted a total of 2,000 flower seeds.

- 6 months on feature selection, development, and production (Production: 2021 December - 2022 May)

- 6 months on exterior design and production (Design: 2021 December-2022 February, Production: 2022 March-May)

- Operational to this day for honeybees since the World Bee Day launch, May 20, 2022.

- Campaign film was on-air for 2 months. (Media Execution: July 5, 2022-September 15, 2022)

Solar Beehive Production Cost :

- Exterior structure: 130 million about $99,500

- Beehive (4ea) including software & server development: 150 million about $114,500

-Process film of Solar Beehive reached a total of 39,211,843 views on YouTube, accounting for 85% of the Korean population.

-Post-campaign, positive mentions about Hanwha increased 2.6 times.

-Solar Beehive web traffic: Since the website launch, publishing two papers proving the effectiveness of the Solar Beehive.

-Thanks to campaign, Hanwha’s renewable energy division recorded a billion USD in sales in the third quarter, which is a 61% increase in profit compared to the past year.

-Presented at the 2023 Davos World Economic Forum as an excellent example of conserving biodiversity, giving Hanwha an edge in the global market.

-Starting with the government, smart features of the Solar Beehive are now used by beekeepers nationwide to stop the honeybee extinction.

-The Solar Beehive is donated as educational material to the university to train future apiarists on smart beekeeping methods and honeybee conservation.