'Solar shirt' to beat the summer heat

A Kolkata-based scientist has come up with a concept of a ‘solar summer shirt’ which will come with with inbuilt solar cells and fans to keep the wearer cool during hot days.

"We are trying to develop technology to fix small solar cells either into the fibre of a shirt or in its pocket," said Santipada GonChaudhury, a specialist in photovoltaic system engineering and design.

GonChoudhury says the shirt could produce around 400 watts of energy with the help of solar cells whose size will vary from 2.5 inches to 3 inches.

He said the shirt would store enough power to charge cell phones, tablets

or other digital devices.

Explaining the concept, the scientist said the shirt will have two layers, one of which will have two to four small ‘fans’ which will work on solar energy.

The size of these miniature fans will be smaller than those found inside a computer.

"Suppose a person is 5.5 feet tall.

"Then the amount of sun rays that fall on every square feet of his body is sufficient to create 400 watts of energy by using solar cells -- enough to charge mobiles, tablets, ipods etc," GonChoudhury told PTI.

The Ashden award winner, who teaches at the Bengal Engineering and Science University, has submitted the research proposal to the Science and Technology Department of the central government.