Expecting to see the latest eco-friendly gadgets at the Greener Gadgets conference in New York last Friday I was pleasantly surprised to leave with a wealth of information about personal energy consumption instead. Dr. Saul Griffith gave a brilliant speech about his own energy consumption that you can view in more detail at inhabitat’s coverage. As a designer I loved when he mentioned, that “climate change is an aesthetic change.” Voltaic’s solar bags are one way to reduce energy consumption, which were given away during speeches. You can walk around in style while promoting clean energy. They come as backpacks or laptop bags and function as solar chargers for all handheld electronics.
The most powerful design is the Voltaic Generator. It looks like a laptop bag and is powerful enough to charge a laptop. In fact the solar panel generates up to 15 watts using 20% efficient cells, which is enough to charge the Voltaic battery in about 5 hours. I still love the simple Voltaic Converter that looks like a backpack. It only generates 4 watts of solar power, which is plenty for cell phones or i-pods. All bags use fabrics made from recycled PET. Inspired to take more responsibility for my energy consumption I added a few eco-chic tools to my sidebar that will allow you find out about yours.
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