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  • Solar Shirt To Produce 400 Watts & Blow Air On Your Armpits

    Kaustubh Katdare

    Kaustubh Katdare

    @thebigk
    Updated: Oct 25, 2024
    Views: 1.1K
    India's 'Solar Man', Santipada GonChaudhury of Bengal Engineering & Science University has submitted research proposal to the Science & Technology Department of government of India to develop a 'Solar Shirt'. The solar shirt would carry 2.5"-3" wide solar cells which, when exposed to the Sun, would produce about 400 watts of energy. The Ashden award winner said that he and his team are trying to develop a new technology to fix small solar cells directly into the fiber of the shirt or in the pockets. GonChaudhary specialises in photovoltaic system engineering & design. Here's how the solar shirt might look like-

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    The shirt would carry solar cells to power small fans in between two layers of fabric. The fans would keep the wearer cool during the hot days. GonChaudhary expects that the shirt can produce enough power to charge mobile phones, tables and other smaller digital gadgets.

    Answering the question "How much would the shirt cost?", GonChaudhary said that he'd expect the price to be around Rs. 1600 and adds that most of the shirts available today are in the range of Rs. 1000 so Rs. 600 for solar power is well justified.

    The news makes us happy & excited. Imagine we all becoming mobile solar power-houses, charging our battery draining androids on the move. We'd love to hear from CEans their ideas of how the solar shirt would change their lives and how'd you use one?
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  • Gurjap

    Member • Apr 15, 2013

    How heavy could it be, I wonder?

    But I will most definitely use it to charge super capacitors hidden in my arms and launch power balls towards annoying professors. Just like Goku.

    Naw, just kidding. I'll use it to charge my cellphone. Maybe I'll hang a few out to dry in the sun and play counterstrike on my laptop even when the power is out. 😀
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  • Rif

    Member • Apr 15, 2013

    1 square meter of solar cells would give 150 W. It is impossible to make a shirt that can generate 400 W, unless it is a shirt to be worn by an elephant.
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  • Ramani Aswath

    Member • Apr 15, 2013

    Current solar panels generate about 100 W/Sq.mtr at normal incidence. Since only one surface of the shirt can be exposed to the sun with about 0.2 sq.mtr. surface, I feel that the maximum out put will be about 20W.
    Since the wearer will be vertical most of the time it is highly unlikely that the sunlight will be incident normal to the shirt. The 20W expected power will have to be multiplied by cos(angle of incidence) for actual power.

    It does not seem likely that the wearer remains in the sun just to get power out.
    Having said that, there are certain people whose work makes them stay out in the sun. It may help in such cases.
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Apr 15, 2013

    I think the best way to answer this questions is to get Mr. GonChaudhary on CE. I'll try.
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  • Gurjap

    Member • Apr 15, 2013

    I'm quite sure we can make those shirts to covers and curtains as well. Might not look quite trendy, but it'll be useful.
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