Rechargeable batteries are everywhere in our lives these days - in our cell phones, or laptops, even in our cars. And getting them recharged all the time is certainly a pain. Finding an alternative way to recharge a Tesla sports car (whose battery pack, incidentally, consists of hundreds of standard laptop batteries) may be somewhat less reachable today. But they are surely making some progress in some of the smaller devices, the cell phone for example. There is a new kind of solar technology available now to consumers that tries to mimic the way plants synthesize energy from sunlight - with the old standbys, chlorophyll and photosynthesis. The technology involves a kind of dye that is sensitive to light. They make photovoltaic cells with this dye, arrange them on large flexible fabric-like panels, and mount them anywhere they need.
For instance, you could have a solar panel pocket on your jacket, or have your travel bag made out of it. Your solar cell pocket would generate electricity and all you would have to do would be to plug your cell phone in to a little outlet in your pocket. You would not have to go stand out in the sun to make it happen, even if that would be the most powerful source of light you could find. Indoor lighting, and the ambient lighting on a cool cloudy day, would work too. Photocells used to be large heavy inflexible objects; reducing it to a dye that is coated to a surface, opens up all kinds of new possibilities. The Sony e-book is soon going to have a solar add-on they can just stick to the back of the device. Laptop bags are coming up soon too. Solar generation capability to juice up the rechargeable batteries in your bag would merely add $100 or so to its price.
There can find it hard to resist, adding it to just about anything; bicycles, spectacles, you name it. The typical dye-based solar panel has 11 solar cells on it; on each, is a thin flexible foil of titanium dioxide, with the dye coated on top of it. If you have a cell phone connected to it, it could take about eight hours if you have an excellent source of light; with indoor lighting, it could take twice as long. This technology isn't all that old; but steady improvements and evolution taking place right now is expected to make these cells about twice as efficient as they are, in the few months it would take for mass production to settle in. They are constantly experimenting with newer dyes and electrolytes; with flexible fabric like solar panels, you can go anywhere your imagination leads you; life-saving equipment going out on rescue missions, war zones and wildlife researchers - anywhere that rechargeable batteries are, life is soon about to get much better.
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