Brilliant! After all, a mobile device is intended to be just that – mobile. Why is it that we can’t charge our devices in a mobile way? Outlets in automobiles don’t count. We’re still confined to our cars during the charging process of our devices on the road. What happens after you hop onto the sidewalk and your phone doesn’t have enough juice to handle a day in the city? Well don’t fret, my friends, because we may be in luck.
The concept of using naturally re-occurring sources of energy is nothing new. Windmills date back to the first century AD, and hydro-power even further – going all the way back to the ancient Mesopotamian empire around 4000 BC in which they used gravity and flowing water to rotate bladed turbines.
Nowadays though, the renewable energy industry is flowing with innovation and new, effective implementations and ideas for sustainability – one of the newest of which is renewable energy clothing or apparel that generates small amounts of electrical power.
No, I’m not talking about strapping a wind turbine to your back, and I’m definitely not suggesting you put a portable hydrogen generator into a backpack and lug that around all day, no.
The photographers over at Pauline van Dongen have showcased a new line of – get this – solar powered clothing.
That’s right! Solar fibers manufactured by Dutch start-up company “Solar Fiber” are being used in clothing prototypes for the purpose of generating enough electricity to charge your phone on the go. While such technology is still in very early phases of design, this opens the gates for innovators in the renewable energy industry to optimize and possibly even come up with better alternatives.
While the concept is truly amazing in theory, the technology hasn’t quite caught up with the energy requirements needed to actually charge mobile devices in today’s world. On top of that, one could make an educated guess that such apparel would only be financially available to people with fat wads of cash to spend on solar-powered clothing.
Personally I think some of these pieces of clothing look like suits of armor you’d see a Night’s Watchman wearing from Game of Thrones – not particularly my personal taste for fashion but hey, it might work next time you decide you want to charge your cell phone during your visit to King Richard’s Faire.
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