Battery Wrapped in Solar Cells Recharges in the Sun
March 2, 2009 by Lisa Zyga
A battery with a half-glued flexible solar cell, and batteries wrapped with the blue solar cells. Image credit: Knut Karlsen.
(PhysOrg.com) -- Although you can buy solar charging devices for rechargeable batteries, it would be even more convenient if batteries had built-in solar cells. Sitting in sunlight, the battery could then recharge itself.
Knut Karlsen, a blogger from Norway, hit upon this idea of a solar battery (a rechargeable battery with integrated solar cells) in hopes of making battery charging more convenient. He was able to work with some flexible solar cells given to him by the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) in Norway. He then glued the 1.8V solar cells around some 1.5V NiMH rechargeable batteries. Using a conductive silver pen and some flat wires from a broken canon lens, he connected the solar cells and batteries.
Karlsen calls his DIY prototype "SunCat" batteries. As he explains, "The batteries should just bask in the sun like a cat and left for a while, in a sunny window, they would slowly recharge." However, according to his blog post, the weather wasn't sunny enough to test the batteries yet. He explains that the current set-up is not ideal, but a second version might include capacitors to charge the batteries more efficiently and electronics to show when the batteries are fully charged.
Via: blog.bareknut.no
Nov 13, 2009 |
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Very clever idea.
i read the heading.
viewed just to comment.
both are inefficient. lol!
nothing clever... really.
I have a couple of devices that puke on the 1.2V instead of the alkaline 1.5V. Sure would be nice to have some of these special 1.5V NiMH batteries....
How much credibility are you going to give an article when they can't get the basics correct? Also, wouldn't it be a little hard for the batteries to recharge if in a device? haha. Real convenient! All right, altogether now, TOTAL FAIL!
We don't want a technology that's so convenient that all someone has to do is let something SIT somewhere for a period of time and then re-use it virtually GUARANTEEING it WILL be used. No, no, we want people to be FORCED to use the kind of technology we think they SHOULD used because it conforms to OUR almighty notions of efficiency, or "green-ness".
Yeah it isn't efficient, yeah you're going to throw things away (just like you do now...), and WOAH they made a mistake on the voltage of the battery in the article...man that should like totally discredit the idea right THERE.
Pftt....whatever. No wonder the ecowacko movement is still stuck in the starting gate. Maybe it should stay there a while longer...
Currently, rechargable batteries are too short lived for me. Disposables may be little rolled up tubes of toxicity, but by gosh they are cheap, readily available, and last for years if unused.
Well I think what Barakn is trying to say is, if you consider the costs economically and ecologically that the solar cells on these batteries are costing then you'd find that they're not only bad for the environment, but also bad for your wallet. This makes them essentially useless and redundant when you could just plug the normal rechargeable batteries into a solar powered charger that, given the consumer base of these "green batteries", would sell just as easily and be far more efficient in both aspects previously mentioned.
I'm with Modern on this, it's a good idea, and a good way to get people off of a toxic disposable item.
Reusable batteries are a great idea. Especially with solar energy being harnessed to charge them, but the format of a round battery that most people value at close to nothing isn't the most efficient way to go.
I do say, however, I'd like to see them in the marketplace. I just don't believe they'll sell well, or make a major difference in "going green".