Step into the sun

"The fact that these materials harness the sun's energy using flexible materials potentially could allow you to weave the plastics into fibers, sort of the way we have synthetic fibers already, and to weave those into clothing and make something that's a wearable solar cell," Sargent said from Boston, where he is working until the summer.

Sargent said the coating could be woven into a shirt or sweater and used to charge an item like a cellphone.

"There is obviously no power in the visible (light)," said Sargent. "But in the infrared, it's not completely zero power. It doesn't have to be as hot as the sun, but everything that's warm, gives off some heat. Even people and animals give off heat. So there actually is some power remaining in the infrared even when it appears to us to be dark outside."

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I wonder what the price point on something like that would be. Until they can get the technology down a price point that the average consumer can afford it'll just be another alternative energy source. :(
 
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