As you know, we here at GadgetKing.com, are a bit crazy about all things solar. This latest solar battery gadget, although still in prototype stage, seems like a great idea.
Designed by Knut Karlsen, the SunCats are basically a set of old NiMH rechargeable batteries wrapped in a flexible Photo Voltaic cell created by the Institute for Energy Technology. When the batteries are drained, you simply leave them sitting in a windowsill or anywhere with ample sunlight and they’ll recharge themselves.
The PV cells were simply glued onto the batteries and wired up using a conductive silver pen and some flat wires scavenged from a broken canon lens. At the moment they only provide a weak trickle charge to the batteries, but Knut envisions a second version with built-in capacitors and electronics to make the charging process more efficient.
[Via]
With a capacitor and a way to bleed off excess charge these should work out great for smaller, travel items and the like.