Photovoltaic news and pv jobs

Solar Nobel-prize fashion stole my heart!

09. September 2010 By:  Sasa Malek

This year’s EU PVSEC’s new technology and inventions have been incredibly inspiring for my scholarly-intellectual side, but on the last day something very special stole my heart and made my feminine side blush at first and then give in to the solar-hotness I was facing. It was, and is, a designer solar handbag.

I was heading to the Konarka Power plastic stand to talk about our future – you know, my head was spinning with bright and crazy ideas about what our world could look like if we would be able to cover everything imaginable in thin film photovoltaics: would it mean that we could wear it in our clothes some day – could we design clothes for extreme climbers that go to the Himalayan and need lightweight, isolative clothes that provide warmth and energy for life-saving devices like the GPS? And what about thin film solar powered computer, which would just roll out in one sheet, recharge itself and work efficiently? The future possibilities for thin film easy and fast printable photovoltaic technology are endless, but little did I know that the answer to my imagination would come in a form of a designer bag!

Just go ahead and picture it! A bag that will end your worries about mobile phone, iPod and mp3 player chargers forever. A lightweight bag, that is completely recyclable and designed by high fashion will not only make you look trendy and sophisticated, but will also make you smart!

After all – you are not only wearing fashion – you are wearing Nobel-prize technology supported fashion, and when your friends will ask you “OMG, what is this incredible bag you are wearing and where did you buy it??” you will be forced to explain the whole technology behind it and impress them with the mobile-phone and music player charging possibilities the bag is hiding inside! It is “the brain behind the model face” fashion – a must have for a modern woman who travels a lot, uses a lot of communication gadgets and needs a certain sophisticated look.

Now let’s get serious about it. Before you indulge in it, it is good to know some basics so that you learn to appreciate it. Konarka’s bags are not a joke! Their Power Plastic lightweight thin film photovoltaic material was developed by the American physicist Dr. Alan Jay Heeger who won the Nobel Prize in the year 2000 for chemistry for his discovery of and the development of conductive polymers.

To make it simpler – together with his colleagues he discovered and developed organic material that is easy printable, lightweight and is at the same time a conductive material that enables the transfer of the solar energy to electricity. Its flexibility (it looks and behaves like a foil) has almost an unlimited use: it can be integrated into buildings in all imaginable ways, into and on cars, textiles …  In the case of the bags, it was the Italian brand Big Bubble Bags that decided to include this power technology into their line.

Big Bubble Bags specialize in sustainable fashion – their bags are made exclusively from bubble wrapping material from Techno Pac (flexible packaging), which gets bought back after reuse and re-recycled as wrapping material or in this case – into fashionable bags. This makes the bags not only completely recyclable, but also extremely lightweight – they are the most lightweight bags on the market are best for traveling.

Their fist line – called Eco Chic – was designed by Paola Pattacini. With the new line Eco² they wanted to empower the recyclability with an additional plus for the traveling woman – a thin layer of solar power modules, which charge a little charger inside non-stop. Whenever you need to recharge your mobile or your music player, you just need to connect it to the charger via a USB and it will be done in 15 min!

Thin sheet photovoltaics really has no future limits – they can be easily produced and their efficiency and development will boom in the next decade. The benefits of your solar bag will therefore only be the beginning of endless possibilities that await you and your family when enjoying the everyday sunshine.