The UK Armed Forces are currently developing an entire line of solar-powered clothing for soldiers. This will enable the solider to charge up the necessary equipment that he carries whilst on a long exercise or away from normal power sources. The benefits also mean that a soldier is able to carry other equipment, and not lots of battery packs. Thanks to photovoltaic cells woven into the garment makes it possible to capture the rays of the sun.
Although this technology is about two years away, add a little bit of inductive charging technology in there as well, it won’t be long until we are all charging our mobiles and iPods within our jackets or handbags. Imagine a constant power supply from your jeans to your mobile juts by putting your mobile in your pocket?
The potential to charge these devices without the use of the sun is not a problem, the solar uniforms will charge the necessary device via thermoelectric energy, which means if the sun goes behind clouds or when it’s night, there is no problem charging the device necessary.
So smaller batteries, less resources used in your mobile, music players etc, it’s a win win all round and especially for the Earth.