Sure, solar-paneled bags are occasionally practical and always geeky , however the women in our lives wouldn’t dream of letting us walk around with one, not to mention using one themselves. That soon may change. The Solar Handbag from Diffus , a Danish design studio, integrates 100 “solar sequins” in a pattern that women may very well find socially acceptable, even perhaps attractive. Through the day, the bag is able to generating 2 watts of power, enough to charge many portable gadgets. After the sun sets, however, any leftover energy is redirected to a collection of optical fibers, which glow while you open the bag to look for mascara, ABC gum stuffed in crumbled receipts, or whatever else you’ve decided may never leave your side . There is no word on whether the bag will actually come to market, but when it does visit production, it could just finally end up being affordable, on condition that many handbag budgets far exceed the quantity we put aside for gadgets.
Luxury handbag becomes a transportable power station when miniaturized solar cells and embroideries are combined
With the boom of environmental consciousness, bags with integrated solar cells to charge your cell phone or laptop are becoming commonplace. The standard approach of placing flexible thin film solar modules onto messenger type bags, however, has primarily ended in products in a outdoor/leisure category. Diffus Design has teamed up with e.g. Swiss embroidery specialist Forster Rohner and Alexandra institute (DK) to challenge this approach.
a purse that charges your mobile, helps you locate your keys and appears amazing!
Within the daytime hours 100 small solar energy stations distributed at the Solar Handbag generate enough electricity to charge a mobile device and a strong lithium ion battery hidden in a small compartment. At night or in dark surroundings, opening the bag activates optical fibres attached to the within of the bag that give a diffuse glow and help in the quest for keys, purse or other objects of significant importance.
A cultured way to function
The will to create a solar power harvesting surface that gives maximum design freedom while still being highly efficient is the motive force behind The Solar Handbag. Working around existing technologies is just not an option: Most textile-based products have limited surface areas available and therefore thin film solar cells have limitations regarding efficiency and aesthetics. The technology behind The Solar Handbag relies on miniaturizing the currently finest photovoltaic material, monocrystalline silicon, into oversized sequins and processing them through traditional textile techniques.
The form of the bag resembles the tale between the connection between the sun and moon – between light source and enlightened. Therefore the form mimics an eclipse where the moon – the enlightened – interfere or interact with the sun – the sunshine source. The outside is embroidered with an integrated combination of ordinary embroidery and conductive embroidery it is ready to convey the energy harvested for the solar sequins to the rechargeable battery.
Promise of an impressive future
The Solar Handbag illustrates the 1st development step towards highly efficient, textile based solar cell surfaces. The 1st generation of solar elements shows an efficiency of 9% when converting solar power into electricity. Overall, the solar elements distributed at the Solar Handbag may be able to generate 2 Watts, good enough energy to charge a mobile device, even at low daily exposure to daylight. The following generation of solar elements are already promising – the hot developments will double the efficiency.
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