Regular talk2myShirt reader will have noticed my special lover for solar bags. I am lucky to live in a place with 200+ days of sunshine per year and my self made solar bag is doing a great job for almost three years now.

If I am not out and about, the solar bag rests next to the window where sunshine comes in the whole afternoon, giving my cellphone and iPod a charge whenever needed.

Now I found a solar bag which has a use for the solar energy harvested other than charging personal devices – using the solar energy to heat up clothing.

This innovative idea comes from the young designers Kim Jangwoon, Lee Youngmin, Jung Soonho and Namgung Mina having having mountaineers in mind who climb the highest mountains or hiking in polar areas.

The rucksack or backpack is covered partly with solar panels which collect and convert solar energy into thermal energy and the generated heat is then evenly distributed to the user’s body via a circular patch on the clothing that remains attached with the backpack via a connecting pipe.

This is the functional description to their Solar Rucksack design concept which also earned the Red Dot Design Concept 2009 award.

I love the idea of using solar panel equipped backpacks not only for giving personal devices a charge but to connect to heated clothing for example. Storing the solar energy in a battery and then connect to a heated jacket, gloves or shoes would indeed be a great feature for adventurer exploring to cold parts of our world.

For now the Solar Rucksack is only a design concept but I don’t see any technical reason why it could not be made into a commercial product anytime soon. Considering the premium price extreme mountaineering equipment has – the addition of a solar panel and a bit of battery storage would not put too much price pressure on it – especially if there is such a clear advantage as keeping warm during extreme adventures.

[via: Tuvie]

With all the snow and cold weather around us we should not forget the sunny side of life. Whenever there is sun you have the opportunity to catch not only warm sun rays but at the same time some additional electrical power for your pocket devices – that is, if you have a solar charging bag.

Concord Keystone Trading LLC, currently exhibiting their portable solar charger collection at the CES has added a solar charging sling bag called 4U2ReUSE (for you to reuse) to their portfolio.

Following the trend of other solar bag companies, their solar bag offers next to the environmental friendly, renewable energy generation environmental friendly materials for the bag which is made from recycled PET plastic bottles and shopping bags.

The 4U2ReUSE Solar Sling is using G24i‘s solar panel technology, a flexible, thin-film solar panel which keeps on charging the batteries even when the sun is hiding behind clouds.

The ‘on-bag’ battery stores all the energy and gives it off when needed via a USB connector cell/smart phones, digital music players and digital cameras.

No price or online shop is available at this time and the company side seems is not working as well. We will give you an update once we found a place where you can purchase this bag.

[via: Imaging Resource]

Solar power , a hot topic around the world as it has the power to lessen, to minimize the negative impact our electrical power hungry lifestyle is having on planet earth.

Solar power generating plants in deserts, solar power generator on roof tops and buildings are a sign of the growing awareness of solar energy.

All those solar power generator are stationary while our personal devices in our pockets are always on the move with us.

Solar generating clothing is one way the make solar power generation more mobile, solar bags are another alternative but how about a solar power harvesting, protective case for our electronic pocket devices?

Seeing cellphones or computers coming to the market with solar panels integrated makes me a bit worried on how a cellphone or computer could possibly withstand sun exposure over a couple of hours to generate electrical energy. From my experience of leaving these delicate devices exposed to sun usually causes damage, ranging from cosmetic deceleration and deformation on the housing and end up in functional damage of the device.

That’s why I am in favor of solar clothing, bags and cases as all of them protect a device while being used to be exposed to sun and other weather elements.

Point in case: Chinagrabber is offering a solar power case for $32.99 with an integrated battery of 2500mAh capacity, enough to charge phones and MP3 player a couple of times. They include an USB connection cable and AC charger for the case as well as 10 different cellphone plugs to connect to most cellphones on the market.

Chinagrabber claims the solar case generates power for 100 minutes of talk time when exposed to full sunlight for one hour.

Getting solar power in form of protective cases for electronic devices when it is most needed – outdoors and exposed to sunlight – makes perfect sense and reason to get one although the color choice is limited to blue only.

Maybe more companies will join the smart mobile solar power market for cases and bags to provide more sensible choices.

It’s the time of the year where people start looking into the far distance, into summer, sun and adventure. A friend of mine is getting ready for an extended trip through the wilderness. Reading his packing list I noticed a ton of spare batteries filling up the space of his backpack, adding considerable weight to it.

A look around the Internet came up with a Space age Solar Backpack, the Blue Sun Solar Backpack which uses CIGS (Copper indium gallium (di)selenide) Solar Cells, the same material used in Nasa Space Technology like the Hubble Space telescope.

This flexible, water (and it seems space) resistant solar panel generates 6 Watt of power which is either stored in the onboard battery pack or used for direct charging via a Cigarette Light Adapter to fill up any of the devices needed on adventure trips like Cell Phones, Digital Cameras, Camcorders, GPS Units and audio player.

Flexible, lightweight solar panels in backpacks provide the best available option when it comes to ensure additional power needs during longer trips through the great outdoors. They save volume need for spare batteries or solar charging devices, they save a great deal of weight which would be needed to carry along and they are much more robust compared with glass based solar cells.

Having Solar power bags around the city is cool, having solar power bags for adventure trips is smart.

If you are on the lookout for a solar power charging bag, the Solarbag Shop has a larger range of different model.

Eclipse Solar Gear recently spiced up their solar bag collection with the Fusion Canvas Messenger Bag featuring a light-weight, flexible, integrated solar charging module in the front flab of the bag.

Using a common 12V automotive charging adapter (car cigarette lighter) allows the connection and charging of many different brands of personal gadgets which have this adapter in their accessory portfolio.

The solar panel has the capability to provide up to 2.5 watts of power by full sun light which is enough to charge almost any of the portable devices on the market but it’s not enough to charge a notebook.

Nevertheless, getting some free recharge all year round from a bag is cool and does give some peace of mind when it comes to contribute to environment protection.

The bag is made of durable 1680D, 800D nylons and recycled materials as well as natural heavy canvas with leather trim. Eclipse Solar Gear is selling the Fusion® Canvas Messenger Bag for $249.95 as holiday special.

The much hyped Voltaic Generator Laptop bag, capable of delivering enough solar power to drive a laptop, seems to have a very slow start in hitting the stores.

It’s been a very long time now that we see the ‘Shipping Soon’ message on Voltaic’s Website and although solar cells do not need summer time to work, to use a solar bag during summertime has the advantage that daylight time is much longer than during wintertime.

After some ‘deep search’ on Google I have found one online store which does offer the Voltaic Generator Bag for $599.- It’s a bit steep for me at the moment but it looks goodcommonsense.net has the Generator available and ships ‘usually the next business day’.

If you have been waiting for the Generator bag sines it’s announcement last January during CES and you have some money reserved for environmental conscious, high tech products you can click over to goodcommonsense.net and order now.

Voltaic does not offer the Generator on their site yet stating: ‘… due to the switch of solar cell suppliers to get higher efficiency cells you’ll get faster charging times but have to wait a bit until it is ready‘.

Voltaic’s Generator Solar bag is one of the most environmental hugging laptop bags you could ever own. Next to the solar power capturing and storing in Voltaic’s own power pack, the bag is made from fabrics out of recycled PET (soda bottles).

The Generator comes, like all other Voltaic solar bags, with a range of standard adapters for common cell phones and other handheld devices. The Generator also includes common laptop adapters. Even without an adapter most devices with a standard car charger or USB charger can be charged.

The feature I most like is the indicator light inside the handle which shows when the panels are generating a charge. This let’s you easily adjust the position of the bag to the best light conditions whenever possible.

The Generator is measuring 17″x12″x3.5″ fitting an 17″ laptop next to your other daily, digital lifestyle devices.

Let’s cross our fingers to see the Generator become available in the fast charging version before all the days with lot of sunshine are getting shorter and darker.