Solar powered batteries on show

Solar power is great and by all accounts is going to save the world from imploding on itself, but having to drag around a solar charging unit with you in order to juice up your phone, for instance, can be a pain in the backside.

Inventor Knut Karlsen has come up with a pretty swish solution to the problem: simply attach solar panels to the batteries themselves. In fact, he's gone much further than just talking about it and has actually come up with some working prototypes, which he's christened SunCat cells. More after the cut.

He managed to conjure up these eco-friendly marvels simply by attaching 1.8v flexible solar cells direct to standard 1.5v nickel-metal hydride rechargeable batteries - the two parts are joined by some old wiring from a Canon lens and a conductive silver pen.

Proving the sun is doing its job, the batteries are then trickle-charged so there's apparently no danger of them being over-charged.

Now he's got the prototypes up and running, Karl is reportedly looking at making the charging process more efficient as well as adding visible power level indicators.

We're not sure whether leaving batteries sitting in sunlight all day long is a good idea, but one thing's for sure: they look pretty darn impressive.

[ Notes from Knut via Engadget]