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Wearable Solar Clothing That Charges your Smartphone

Wearable Solar, designed by Pauline van Dongen, is literally what it sounds like – solar energy that you can wear. “The Sun is the biggest source of energy on earth and now that fossil fuels are depleting, it’s time we come up with a sustainable alternative,” she says. Thus, the Wearable Solar project.

The Wearable Solar project consists of a coat and a dress that places solar cells close to your body, capturing solar light to convert into electricity. The parts of the clothing with solar cells can also be revealed or worn invisibly, depending on whether or not the sun is shining.

Wearable-Solar-Dress

When worn in full sunshine for an hour, each item of clothing can store enough energy to charge a smartphone to 50%. The dress has 72 flexible solar cells, while the coat has 48 rigid solar cells. The Wearable Solar team consists of Pauline van Dongen, Christiaan Holland (Project leader Gelderland Valoriseert from the HAN) and Gert Jan Jongerden (Solar-energy expert).

Photography: Mike Nicolaassen
Make-up: Angelique Stapelbroek
Model: Julia J. at Fresh Model Management

After surviving a quarter life crisis, Nanette went from working in healthcare canadian meds to pursuing her loves of design, food and writing. During the day she works in social media marketing, by night she writes for Design Milk. You can find more of her work at nanettewong.com.