Roll-up solar cells

New Scientist:

Imagine wearing a jacket or rucksack that charges up your mobile phone while you take a walk. Or a tent whose flysheet charges batteries all day so campers can have light all night. Or a roll-out plastic sheet you can place on a car's rear window shelf to power a child's DVD player.

Such applications could soon become a reality thanks to a light, flexible solar panel that is a little thicker than photographic film and can easily be applied to everyday fabrics. The thin, bendy solar panels, which could be on the market within three years, are the fruit of a three-nation European Union research project called H-Alpha Solar (H-AS).

Glenn,

I heard about this a little while ago.

I'm just wondering do we catch on fire when we pump gas wearing one of these?

Was that an urban myth about not using a cell phone while pumping gas?

Unless something better comes out in the mean time I plan on getting solar cell phone chargers for most of my family members come the winter holidays

-Jessica

Hi,It's an urban myth.

A TV program over here called Top Gear, put a load of mobile phones into a petrol soaked caravan, and tried to blow up the caravan by phoning the mobile phones. Nothing!

With love and gratitude
Alan