Solar-cell covered Power Purse

About as useful in the drizzly Pacific Northwest as the Stonehenge Pocketwatch, Iowa State doctoral student Joe Hynek's award-winning solar panel-covered Power Purse charges portable electronics in regions where the sun actually throws down some juice now and then. The bag (not to be confused with those other solar bags for him), which took second place in the aesthetic design category at April's American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists design competition, sports flexible solar-cells developed by Ames Laboratory researchers. Hynek and his advisor, Mark Bryden, are now trying to slap solar-cells on other formerly-fashionable gear like hats, and are trying to produce laundry-proof versions so that your entire wardrobe becomes an instant geek-magnet.

[Via Treehugger]

[Jayson Elliot @ Dec 19th 2005 2:37AM]

I love it. Halfway through the post, I was thinking, "bet that would be good on a hat..."

And whaddya know? Hats.

Nice.

[Tupper @ Dec 19th 2005 2:37AM]

This could be a shocking development in current fasion trends...

or

I wonder if they would let you buy this with cash, or do you have to charge it?

[nayee @ Dec 19th 2005 2:37AM]

ZIIIING... :

[iomatic @ Dec 19th 2005 2:37AM]

What the frick with the 'drizzly Northwest post?' It's sunny and 72� today.

Oh wait, you want to live here? Oh, no it's rainy and miserable all the time. Don't bother.

..

..

[jesse @ Dec 19th 2005 2:37AM]

You couldn't charge a watch battery with such a small amount of thin-film solar PV. Rediculous where these embedded PV products are going.

[hesh @ Dec 19th 2005 2:37AM]

pics+divx of girl kthxbye

[TZK @ Dec 19th 2005 2:37AM]

wow.. almost a nice shot of cameltoe.

Hey, nice hat!

[zimma @ Dec 19th 2005 2:37AM]

and would would this be used for? what kind of devices would need to be charged? yeah, it's barely enough to charge something little.. forget about charging your cell phone or mp3 player.
and iomatic is right. its bright and sunny here in the seattle right now. no clouds or rain coming our way.. (yet)

[Mac Maven @ Dec 19th 2005 2:37AM]

I don't know if this would be adequate to charge a laptop, BUT I have a backpack that has a small solar panel much smaller than this purse and it is certainly adequate to charge my iPod, cellphone, or Canon camera battery . That's what I bought it for--to use on a recent trip to India where there is plenty of sun. Inside of the backpack there is a connector to the solar panel that is like the cigar lighter (power socket) in a car. I have an iPod car charger unit, and an inverter which I can plug in when I need to charge my cellphone or my camera battery. This looks like it could do the same, as well as carry such similar small devices if you don't need a backpack. You can see the size at .

[Mac Maven @ Dec 19th 2005 2:37AM]

Addenda: the previous post cut off the place where you can compare sizes. You can see the backpack solar panel size at eclipsesolargear.com.