This limited-edition solar-panel bikini was released by New York based clothes designer Andrew Schneider in the summer of 2011. The device can power small electronic gadgets such as iPods and cameras via a USB port concealed within its inner linings. Users can even go swimming whilst wearing the device but must fully dry off before - Solar power has been adapted for use in eccentric products like bikini costumes
- Experts say such items have practical as well as novelty value
- Solar technology could power low-voltage consumer electronic devices
Although there may be something of the novelty about these items, one expert at the cutting edge of photovoltaic research believes they offer good examples of how solar energy can be adapted for use in small-scale consumer products.
"Most household or portable appliances operate on low-voltage DC requirements, which is exactly what solar produces," says Douglas Halliday, a solar power expert at Durham University's Energy Institute, in the UK.
If products such as televisions, DVD players, alarm clocks and mobile-phone chargers can be adapted to meet some of their own power demands via in-built solar panels, "the overall energy saving could be quite significant," he says.
Halliday explains that as solar technology develops and becomes more efficient, the possibility to develop new kinds of creative solar solutions will also likely increase -- including the potential to incorporate solar power into clothing.
This would work, he claims, by combining thin film solar cells with clothing materials to create garments that produce electricity when exposed to sunlight.
This in turn could lead to people powering small portable electronic devices, like iPods, mobile phones or laptops, while they are on the move, negating the need for them to be charged from the mains, he adds
Check out the galley above for some of the most eccentric, and inventive, solar concepts to be developed in recent years.