Wearable Power Prize Competition Winner

The Department of Defense (DoD) found the winner for their $1 million Wearable Power Prize competition.

Many interesting ideas and concepts have been submitted ranging from individual inventors to larger corporations.

And the winner is: the DuPont/Smart Fuel Cell (SFC) Team building the lightest wearable system that provides an average of 20 watts of power for more than 96 hours and weighs less than 4,000 grams, or 8.8 pounds.

Sounds quite a lot power in your bag, ehm …. on a soldiers gear. I don’t think  this solution will penetrate the consumer/lifestyle and fashion market ‘as it is’ anytime soon, 8.8 pounds is a lot to carry but to think about it …. I would not need power for 96 hours, I would be very happy to make sure my mobility gadgets survive one day without having to worry about empty batteries.

The solution of the DuPont/Smart Fuel Cell team is not really ground breaking, using a combination of advanced fuel-cell and battery technologies.

William Rees Jr., the deputy under secretary for defense laboratories and basic sciences: “The winners, and really all the teams that competed, have moved wearable power technology forward.”

And this is the important thing, challenging the known and pushing the technology limits in military initiatives will always have a trickle down effect to consumer products. And the military is very interested into wearable technologies.

We will monitor the follow up of this project to see when we can expect wearable power fit for consumer products. In the meantime you might want to check out our earlier post about Wearable Power for your inspirational reading pleasure.

[source: Press release DoD]

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