The Raise of Wearable Solar Energy Technology

What if you could charge your phone, or one of your devices, discretely in your pocket while on the go? No, you wouldn't need to carry around a solar panel and power system with you. You wouldn't will have to carry a backpack with an integrated solar panel either. Imagine the actual fabric of your clothing as the solar panel. That corrects, the future is coming with us fast.

Researchers at Fudan University in Shanghai have developed a material that are worn while collecting and converting solar energy into electricity. The material is lightweight, flexible and inexpensive to produce. The scientists have discovered a way to inter weave microscopic metal wires (the wires are coated with an active polymer which absorbs light) with titanium dioxide nano tubes and another sort of active polymer, which forms a fabric.

Thus, each of the components of a traditional solar panel exist, if in an entirely new arrangement. The metal wires absorb sunlight and start the photo voltaic effect by generating'electron holes'. The electrons 'jump' from hole to hole, always parallel to form an electrical current. The electrons are conducted from titanium dioxide nano tubes (the negative layer) while the secondary active layer conducts the electron holes (the positive layer). The circuit is completed by a layers or sheets of transparent, conductive carbon nano tubes.

The fabric is able to be bent over 200 times and since the entirety of the 'threads' is coated in photo active material, can collect solar energy from both sides. The end result is a thin material that can withstand the wear and tear of everyday usage, fit over irregular shapes and surfaces, all the while efficiently collecting light energy.

The only problem using this technology? It is far away from reaching consumers' hands. Currently, researchers have only been able to produce a tiny patch of the solar fabric and while this is a huge achievement by itself, it means that there is a very long way to go yet before it may be mass scaled. This is among the most common problems with new solar technologies being developed today. Samples can be created in labs, but developing the equipment and designing the manufacturing processes for being able to produce large batches is a huge challenge. It also doesn't come cheap, which is partially why a lot of of these new solar technologies don't make it to the marketplace quickly.

While it is unlikely that we will have the capacity to wear 'solar shirts' within the next few years, it is comforting to bear in mind that once upon a time the variety of solar panels that maybe found on millions of rooftops globally was once just a tiny patch of photo active materials.

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