Top up your mobile with the ultimate in power dressing
PEOPLE unable to tear themselves away from their iPods or mobile phones could find salvation in a Japanese invention: solar-powered clothes that will keep their favourite accessories constantly topped up
The energy is generated by solar panels that are less than half a millimetre thick, as pliable 柔軟的 as fabric, cheap to produce and can be dyed any colour.
Their inventor, Tsukasa Yoshida, a chemistry professor, envisages 想像出hundreds of applications, from umbrellas that can charge mobile phones to tents that can provide campers with enough power to run a laptop computer.
He claims that his invention overcomes two key pitfalls 陷阱、易犯的錯誤 of traditional solar panels: high cost and rigidity 僵硬.
The key breakthrough was finding a way to dye the solar panels a variety of colours and thus make them attractive. Black is the most efficient colour for a panel, but Professor Yoshida, of Gifu University, decided that the quest 探索 for “solar propagation” 繁殖 was more important. A traditional black solar panel may have an efficiency of about 12 per cent, while a red version of his “rainbow cell” is about half as energy efficient. “Having lots of colours is less efficient but it means that the panels can literally 簡直 go anywhere,” he said.
Professor Yoshida admits, though, that charging a mobile phone from completely empty to completely full might take around 20 hours, even in bright sunshine. The most efficient solar cells can convert only 20 per cent of the energy they receive from the sun into electricity.
Large surfaces such as buildings can be coated 上塗料 in panels, a feature that has led to another deal between Gifu and Sekisui, one of Japan’s largest construction companies. A house covered in rainbow cells could potentially cut annual electricity consumption from the grid 太陽能格板 by 50 percent.
Each star-shaped panel on Dr Yoshida’s prototype satin緞 jacket generates around 5 milliwatts per hour.
It is estimated that the global solar industry will be worth around £20 billion by 2010.
The energy is generated by solar panels that are less than half a millimetre thick, as pliable 柔軟的 as fabric, cheap to produce and can be dyed any colour.
Their inventor, Tsukasa Yoshida, a chemistry professor, envisages 想像出hundreds of applications, from umbrellas that can charge mobile phones to tents that can provide campers with enough power to run a laptop computer.
He claims that his invention overcomes two key pitfalls 陷阱、易犯的錯誤 of traditional solar panels: high cost and rigidity 僵硬.
The key breakthrough was finding a way to dye the solar panels a variety of colours and thus make them attractive. Black is the most efficient colour for a panel, but Professor Yoshida, of Gifu University, decided that the quest 探索 for “solar propagation” 繁殖 was more important. A traditional black solar panel may have an efficiency of about 12 per cent, while a red version of his “rainbow cell” is about half as energy efficient. “Having lots of colours is less efficient but it means that the panels can literally 簡直 go anywhere,” he said.
Professor Yoshida admits, though, that charging a mobile phone from completely empty to completely full might take around 20 hours, even in bright sunshine. The most efficient solar cells can convert only 20 per cent of the energy they receive from the sun into electricity.
Large surfaces such as buildings can be coated 上塗料 in panels, a feature that has led to another deal between Gifu and Sekisui, one of Japan’s largest construction companies. A house covered in rainbow cells could potentially cut annual electricity consumption from the grid 太陽能格板 by 50 percent.
Each star-shaped panel on Dr Yoshida’s prototype satin緞 jacket generates around 5 milliwatts per hour.
It is estimated that the global solar industry will be worth around £20 billion by 2010.
posted by wonderwan at 1:45 PM
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