Scientists have created a new type of miniature solar panels. These are meant to be integrated into clothing and thus allow to generate electricity from light and power up your devices.
Scientists from the Nottingham Trent University have presented a new type of miniature solar cell that is meant to be used inside clothing. The scientists say this is the future of clothing as it will be able to freely charge up electronics inside the clothes but also, for example, your mobile devices.
The amount of electronic devices we keep on ourselves constantly is rapidly growing. In the past, it was pretty much just your phone. But as technology progresses, we now also have smartwatches and smart-bracelets, wireless headphones and more devices like AR glasses are sure to come in the future. And each of the devices requires you to charge its battery. But if we were constantly generating electricity in our clothing this problem may be pushed aside or even completely solved.
The newly developed solar cells are truly small – just 3 millimeters in length and 1.5 millimeters in width. This even includes a special construct allowing to easily weave them into common textiles. The small dimensions make them almost invisible.
The scientists tested and concluded that a system of these miniature solar cells is capable of charging a Fitbit smart-bracelet or even smartphone. In the current prototype version, 200 of these cells generated 2.5 – 10 V with an output of up to 80 mW. And the 200 cells were inside a tiny 5 x 5-centimeter grid. So we need only 2000 of the cells to charge up a smartphone.
While the development stage is still testing only the prototypes, the results clearly show that these devices will have their uses and maybe one day we will finally be able to forget about charging up our devices during the night and just have them charged by our sweaters.
Sources:
- https://techxplore.com/news/2018-12-flea-sized-solar-panels-embedded-mobile.html
- http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/34874/
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