SunCat Batteries Providing Solar Charging

The new solar-powered phones like the Samsung Blue Earth are a great eco-friendly concept. You probably won’t see the sun-powered phones replacing mainstream handsets anytime soon. With many other gadgets needing to be checked on and made better. Knut Karlsen believes that integrating flexible solar cells onto rechargeable batteries could be a more immediate solution to reducing our carbon footprint.

The SunCat involves flexible solar cell strips glued to nickel metal hydride rechargeable cells. It is also named after a feline basking in the sun. A silver pen that is conductive and has flat wire recycled from a broken Canon lens Knut was able to get a little bit of charge connection. The first prototype was not ideal and he is currently working on a second model that may include a display for checking battery life and capacitors for more efficient charging.

One slight problem with this would be the battery would have to be smaller. They would be like this if the extra components were to be added into a regular cell. They are confident that the issues can be worked out along the way.