Hasta La Ideas

Flaps in this range of clothing by Dutch fashion designer Pauline van Dongen open up to reveal solar panels, enabling the wearer to become a walking mobile phone charger (+ movie).

Pauline van Dongen collaborated with Christiaan Holland from the HAN University of Applied Sciences and solar energy expert Gert Jan Jongerden on the Wearable Solar project, which aims to integrate photovoltaic technology into comfortable and fashionable clothing.

“Wearable Solar is about integrating solar cells into fashion, so by augmenting a garment with solar cells the body can be an extra source of energy,” Van Dongen told Dezeen at the Wearable Futures conference in London. “It’s really about the true integration of technology and fashion, which can transcend the realm of gadgets.”

The dress features 72 flexible cells attached to panels on the front of the garment that can be folded outwards to capture sunlight. Forty-eight rigid crystal solar panels are incorporated into leather flaps on the jacket’s shoulders and waist so they can be revealed when the sun shines and hidden when not in use.

A standard charging plug connects the solar panels directly to a mobile device, and Van Dongen claimed that a garment exposed to direct sunlight for one hour could capture enough energy to charge a typical smartphone to 50 percent capacity.

Van Dongen said the comfort and weight of these garments could be improved by experimenting with flexible photovoltaic cells, adding that other hardware such as batteries also needs to be refined before wearable technology will become part of everyday life.

“Wearability is very important to my work because I am a fashion designer,” explained Van Dongen. “We’re dealing here with the human body and it’s not just a static body, it’s dealing with movement and expressions, a sensory surface so it’s very important to stress the wearability.”

“We’re not very far away from people actually wearing these garments that I design,” said Van Dongen, adding that the project team are also currently seeking investment to translate it into a commercially viable enterprise.

“I think it’s important to see which technologies are really ready to be implemented, how people would deal with them, how people would feel in those clothes, what it could mean to them. And of course looking at the cost of these technologies. If you’re integrating 80 solar cells then of course you’re adding to the cost and you have to look at how much people are willing to pay for it.”

The project is being presented at Wearable Futures, an event showcasing innovations in wearable technologies which is taking place in London from 10-11 December.

Here is some more information from the designer:

Wearable Solar

Solar cells have been constructed to capture solar light and convert it into electricity. Their internal structure is layered and resembles the stratified cells of the human body, which naturally interacts with sunlight. If a body is augmented with solar cells it will embody enough electrical power to become a real source of energy. For the Wearable Solar project, a coat and a dress have been designed placing solar cells close to the body.

The two wool and leather prototypes comprise parts with solar cells which can be revealed when the sun shines or folded away and worn invisibly when they aren’t directly needed. The coat incorporates 48 rigid solar cells while the dress 72 flexible solar cells. Each of them, if worn in the full sun for an hour, can store enough energy to allow a typical smartphone to be 50% charged. The Sun is the biggest source of energy on earth and now that fossil fuels are depleting, it’s time we come up with a sustainable alternative.

The multi-disciplinary team behind Wearable Solar is composed by: Pauline van Dongen, Christiaan Holland (Project leader Gelderland Valoriseert from the HAN) and Gert Jan Jongerden (Solar-energy expert).

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for charging a mobile phone appeared first on Dezeen.

News: students at the Eindhoven University of Technology have unveiled what they claim to be the world’s first solar-powered family car.

Called Stella, and resembling a squashed, wingless aeroplane, the vehicle can seat four people and can travel up to 600 kilometres, powered by solar panels mounted on the roof.

The vehicle has been developed to take part in the new Cruiser Class category of the World Solar Challenge – a biannual 3,000km race race through the Australian outback from Darwin to Adelaide.

This new category will be introduced for the first time at this year’s event, taking place from 6-13 October, to reflect the growing interest in commercially viable solar cars.

Unlike the other categories, where speed is the main concern, the Cruiser Class is judged on criteria including comfort and usability. Cruiser Class vehicles must also carry a passenger as well as a driver.

“The design of the car of the future has to meet the needs of modern consumers,” says Solar Team Eindhoven, which is based at Eindhoven University of Technology. “The car must be capable of transporting a family from the Netherlands to France in one day, it needs to be suitable for the daily commute to work, and it needs to achieve all this in comfort.”

“Since the Solar Team Eindhoven wants to contribute to the development of a car of the future, the design demands more than just a focus on speed,” the team adds. “Comfort, ease of use, and feasibility are all key terms.”

The carbon and aluminium car features a buttonless, touchscreen dashboard and a responsive steering wheel that expands or contracts according to your speed.

Solar panels on the car’s roof will generate around half the energy it requires, with the remaining power coming from solar recharging stations.

Solar Team Eindhoven’s website provides more details of the World Solar Challenge race. “A large part of the energy to be used will be collected by solar cells as we travel,” it says. “During the race, there are only three opportunities to recharge the relatively small battery, which means the car has to be able to independently drive a minimum of 750 kilometers on electric energy. Besides the issue of energy and its management, navigation, safety and support will be essential.

“Once the race starts in Darwin, the teams are permitted to drive until 5.00 p.m. in the afternoon. After that, they have to set up camp in the outback and be ready to leave again at 8.00 a.m. The teams must be completely self reliant and must reach all seven checkpoints.”

Photos are by Bart van Overbeeke/TU Eindhoven.

Here’s some info from Eindhoven University of Technology:

TU/e student team unveils world’s first solar-powered family car

Solar Team Eindhoven starts World Solar Challenge in Australia with four-seater family car

The Solar Team Eindhoven (STE) of Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) presented the world’s first solar-powered family car today. ‘Stella’ is the first ‘energy-positive car’ with room for four people, a trunk, intuitive steering and a range of 600 kilometers. This is the car being entered by the student team in the Cruiser class of the World Solar Challenge that starts in Australia in October 2013.

A car that produces electricity

The solar cells of ‘Stella’- Latin for star and also a reference to the family character of the car – generate more electricity on average than the car uses and that means the surplus electricity can be returned to the power grid, thereby making the car ‘energy-positive’.

The car of the future

Solar Team Eindhoven has set itself the goal of developing the car of the future. By combining aerodynamic design with lightweight materials like carbon and aluminum, a very fuel-efficient car has been designed, which also has ingenious applications like a LED strip and touchscreen that make all the buttons and knobs we know today superfluous. Intuitive driving is enabled by a steering wheel that expands or contracts when you are driving too fast or too slowly. STE will have the car officially certified for road use to prove that this really is a fully-fledged car.

World Solar Challenge

University teams from all over the world will be competing in a 3,000 km long race through the Australian outback. Solar Team Eindhoven is taking part in the Cruiser class in which the emphasis lies on practical and user-friendly solar cars rather than on speed. The ‘solar race’ takes place from 6 to 13 October 2013. Back in the Netherlands there will be a tour of high schools to promote engineering and science in education.

The engineer of tomorrow

Thanks to Solar Team Eindhoven entry, TU/e is represented for the first time in the Solar World Challenge. A multidisciplinary team (with 22 students from six different TU/e departments) has spent a year on this project that involves challenges from the fields of energy and mobility. Cooperation with industry has given the students an opportunity to become familiar with top-notch entrepreneurship, thereby underlining TU/e’s vision of educating the engineer of tomorrow. TU/e professors prof.dr. Elena Lomonova and prof.dr.ir. Maarten Steinbuch are members of the steering group.

Eindhoven  University of Technology

Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) is a research-driven, design-oriented technology university with a strong international focus. The university was founded in 1956 and has around 7,200 students and 3,000 staff. TU/e is geared to the societal challenges posed in the areas of Energy, Health and Smart Mobility.

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to race across Australia appeared first on Dezeen.

Serbian designer Miloš Milivojevic has installed a tree-like mobile phone charger powered by the sun in a park in Belgrade.

Black Tree was created by Miloš Milivojevic for renewable energy company Strawberry Energy.

Situated in Tašmajdan Park near St. Mark’s Church, the tree-shaped structure provides solar-powered energy so that passers-by can recharge their mobile phones and tablets while sitting on the bench underneath.

Charging points on stretchy cords hang from the metal bar on the bench.

Other projects in Belgrade we’ve featured on Dezeen include and a concept shop inspired by the “golden years of communism” and a beauty salon with long plastic threads like hair hanging from its ceiling.

See all our stories from Belgrade » 
See all our stories about solar panels »

Here’s more information from the designer:

Black Tree for Strawberry Energy

Black Tree is a public solar charger for mobile phones, designed for Strawberry Energy, the company which invented the first public solar charger for mobile phones – the Strawberry Tree. In cooperation with Palilula Municipality and the city of Belgrade, this Strawberry Tree with completely new design has been set up in Tašmajdan park in Belgrade in November 2012.

Black Tree is conceived as an artificial tree which transforms the solar energy into the necessary electrical energy and in this way joins the surrounding forest in a common struggle for the planet richer in oxygen. With its function, this Strawberry Tree reminds us of the insufficiently exploited potential of the energy of the sun, through people’s everyday habits such as sitting under the tree and using the nature as a shelter from the sun. The large but elegant steel construction is more than three and a half metres long and four and half metres tall which follows the line of a real tree.

This public solar charger for mobile devices enables visitors of Tašmajdan park to recharge the batteries of their mobile phones, tablets and multimedia devices with the energy of sun.

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Miloš Milivojevic appeared first on Dezeen.