Solar-cell covered Power Purse
posted Sep 23rd 2005 2:25PM
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]
I love it. Halfway through the post, I was thinking, "bet that would be good on a hat..."
And whaddya know? Hats.
Nice.
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?
ZIIIING... :
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.
..
..
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.
pics+divx of girl kthxbye
wow.. almost a nice shot of cameltoe.
Hey, nice hat!
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)
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 .
Addenda: the previous post cut off the place where you can compare sizes. You can see the backpack solar panel size at eclipsesolargear.com.