Count on the Solar Cells In Shirt for Your Charging Needs
With the addition of menswear, a solar-powered line of clothes doubles its proliferation
Almost a year ago Pauline van Dongen and Holst Centre launched their Solar Shirt at South by Southwest. Since then, a menswear version of the design has been created.
The garment contains a output cable in its pocket, which allows the wearer to charge devices on the go. The Solar Shirt generates sustainable energy from 120 thin-film solar cells. In bright sunlight, it produces around 1 to 1.5 W of electricity — enough to charge a typical cellphone in a few hours. While indoors, the shirt generates enough power to keep a battery charged, so your phone or other devices are ever-ready when you need them. The shirt can charge any USB-compatible portable devices. And, if all your devices are charged, the energy can be stored in the shirt’s battery for later use.
The technology in the shirt is lightweight, which makes the design comfortable to wear and reduces the amount of friction that normally happens between bulky, rigid electronics and the soft, draped character of textiles. With a seamless integration of technology and fashion. The shirt’s solar cells are combined into modules that are designed as a zany graphic pattern, allowing the technology to become a distinct feature of the design. The shirt looks and feels like any other T-shirt because it’s made with ultra thin, stretchable electronics and flexible solar cells.
“It’s not some far fetched future scenario we are talking about, it’s actually becoming reality. It’s integrating in our actual daily lives,” says Pauline van Dongen.
The video promoting the new shirt portrays a vision of wearable technology as something that will become normal to people and will offer us new experiences.
These modules are laminated onto the fabric using a heat press technique, thereby fully merging the solar cells with the textile. Our lifestyles and professions continue to require more access to digital devices. This trend could continue to push the developments of technology to a point where everything gets designed in such a way that it easily blends into our everyday lives. That is exactly what van Dongen thinks:
“Obviously the technology strongly informs the design, but it’s important for me that the design does not solely depend on the technology for it to be successful and accepted. From a fashionable perspective I believe that even when the technology is not functioning — like when wearing the shirt in low light conditions — it should still remain an interesting design for the way it looks and the meaning it conveys.”
It’s fitting that our clothing is beginning to catch up to how we use communication devices. Perhaps this new design will push men and women across the globe to go outside more and expand their horizons.
Originally published at www.psfk.com on February 25, 2016.