Solar smartphone screens can recharge batteries

Sunpartner Technologies and Kyocera have developed a photovoltaic screen that enables smartphone touch screens to generate solar power and recharge.

Smartphone batteries are infamously short and we have seen plenty of startups utilizing solar power to provide on-the-go charging. Examples include a solar print advertisement, solar headphones and solar-powered stained glass windows. Now, Sunpartner Technologies could trump them all with its photovoltaic screen that can enable practically any smartphone to generate its own solar power and charge itself.

Sunpartner Technologies teamed up with Japanese tech giant Kyocera to create a prototype solar charging phone, which can translate three minutes of sunlight into one minute of talk time. The device incorporates Sunpartner’s 0.55 mm Wysips display, which sits below the phone’s touch screen. The ultrathin photovoltaic layer has an 85 percent transparency, meaning it has little effect on the visual appearance of the screen.

The technology could be incorporated into most mobile devices to prolong battery life and provide emergency power and peace of mind. Eventually an improved design may even replace electrical charging completely.

What other small devices could incorporate photovoltaic material to help them generate their own solar charge?