2007 Archives: Noon Solar-Powered Bags
When it comes to solar, everyone’s a fan—but very few of us have actually gone the extra mile to put the panels on our roofs. In fact, although enough sunlight falls on the earth’s surface every hour to meet the world’s energy demands for an entire year (this according to one of our favorite tell-it-like-it-is environmental activist sites www.alliantenergykids.com, which just happens to be written for 10-year-olds), only 10,000 homes in the United States are powered entirely by solar energy.
And despite the fact that places like California seem a logical place to go solar, the limitations of available panel products make even that sun worshipping state a difficult place to implement the system. In fact, one reader in California had a contractor actually tell her he’d have to cut down the gigantic tree that shaded her house (and cooled her house, thus bringing down energy demands in said house) in order to install solar panels on her roof.
Interesting, then, that the most truly awesome innovation in solar technology would come from a place where sunshine is a rarity this time of year. Chicago-based Noon Solar chose the rainy days of winter to introduce their Jetsons-worthy line of bags featuring solar panels that charge up cell phones and iPods on the go.
With a lofty goal of introducing solar energy into daily life so that the solar industry can become more accessible and as a nation we can become less dependent on oil, Noon Solar’s bags eclipse the dogma and are just plain out-of-the-box super friggin’ cool.
The unisex bags are made from biodegradable materials like chrome-free leathers tanned with sustainably harvested materials such as rhubarb and walnuts, combined with naturally hand-dyed hemp and cotton fabrics. The flexible solar panels power an internal battery pack. Plug into that and you never have to worry about packing your power cord again.
Because it’s high noon. And high time.
