In reply to ianstevens:
> I think you'll struggle to do anything new here without some major battery or solar panel innovations.
That isn't necessarily the aim of this exercise. No-one expects A-level maths students to produce original work.
The point here is to demonstrate the skills of analysing the problem space, and solution space, identifying a matching market, and working to a solution. A negative outcome is just as acceptable (cf 'gate reviews'). A critical analysis of existing products, their use cases and limitations is also valuable.
The issue of whether such a product can be viable in a crowded market is also relevant to a Product Design/Development/Marketing course; do we have some USP that gives us a competitive edge, and how to do we maintain & protect that? This is all useful experience.
(Proper Marketing, that is; not Sales or Advertising...)
p.s. I've spent a 40 year career doing this, in a specific field, looking at how new technologies can be exploited to meet needs; sometimes needs that aren't even known yet. The Art of the Possible.
Post edited at 14:53