12 Solar Powered Things You Won’t Believe

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Published Feb 8, 2017

From the wearable solar clothing to the Indiegogo funded invention the Rawlemon, technology that absorbs solar energy the best way!

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7. A Solar-Powered Garbage Compactor
Appropriately named the BigBelly Solar bin, this garbage compactor was first introduced back in 2013 and underwent trials in the city of Merton in south-west London. Since then, the compactors have sprouted up in other cities such as Chicago, Boston, New York, and Amsterdam. Even popping up on the campus of the University of Berkeley back in 2015. The BigBelly Solar bin is able to collect the sun’s energy and use it to crush the garbage inside to an eighth of its original size. When it’s 85 percent full, it sends out a text message notify that it needs to be emptied.

6. Solar Powered Headphones
These sleek headphones are known as the OnBeat headphones and were designed by Scottish audio engineer Andrew Anderson. The headphones are able to harness solar energy by the panels that are located on top of the headband and store them inside of the two rechargeable lithium ion batteries that are found in each ear cup. The energy is saved for later and you can charge your smartphone by plugging in a USB cord into the port located opposite of the headphone jack wire. The price for one of these headphones is said to be around £119 or 147 US dollars.

5. Rawlemon
This new type of solar panel is called the Rawlemon and it’s supposed to be better than the regular rectangular panels that we’re accustomed to seeing. Unlike the rectangular panels, this sphere of a panel is able to follow the sun’s movements throughout the day and better harness its energy. The funds for this Indiegogo project were completed back on March 10, 2014, with well over the amount that was requested.

4. A Solar-Powered Phone
This solar-powered phone was created by the Japanese firm called Kyocera, along with their partner, SunPartner, which is a French firm. The two companies debuted their collaboration effort at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain earlier this year in February. Sunpartner is responsible for creating the built-in solar panel that is found on the phone and it’s called WYSIPS or What You See Is Photovoltaic Surface. The 5-inch phone requires three minutes in direct sunlight in order to have just one minute of call time, which is impressive considering Kyocera once needed 8 minutes. It’s still only in the concept phase and the phone could be scrapped altogether.

3. A Solar-Powered Laptop
The SOL laptop was created by the Canadian firm WeWi Telecommunications and the company currently specializes in creating hardware and software for military and law enforcement. The laptop comes fixed with solar panels that are located underneath its lid and can provide a fully charged battery within two hours. Once the battery has gone through a complete charge, it’s said that the laptop’s battery life should last you around 10 hours. The purpose for the laptop’s creation is to be used in certain areas of the world where electricity is limited and to help improve the “acceleration of education.” It’s believed these can help cut a large amount of CO2 emission by not connecting to a power grid.

2. A Solar-Powered T-shirt
This is where fashion meets technology. The Solar Shirt was a collaboration between fashion designer Pauline van Dongen and the Holst Center, a research center for technology and development. The shirt is able to create about a watt of electricity, which is just enough to power to charge a standard smartphone. This is thanks to special solar panels that are sewn into the shirts fabric. The shirt also comes equipped with a sewn in battery that is able to store energy for when you want to charge your phone at a later time. What’s fascinating is that the shirt is able to be placed inside of a washing machine like any other garment and it will not become damaged.

1. Solar-Powered Clothing
Yes, we did discuss a type of solar-powered clothing in the last section we just did, however, this type of clothing doesn’t use solar panels like the last. Last month in October, scientists at the Jinan University in China were able to create a special type of fiber that can be woven into clothes and harness the sun’s energy. One of the new fibers is made out of a wire coated in copper and is then interlaced with another fiber made with a titanium-coated polymer, an electrolyte, zinc oxide, and a dye. The other is made of a thin carbon shell, titanium, titanium oxide, an electrolyte. The two fibers are then woven together with cotton yarn.