What started as a joke about a bikini that can cool your beer at the beach has turned into a real project… Introducing Andrew Schneider’s Solar Bikini.
The Brooklyn-based designer’s Solar Bikini is a swimsuit that comprises 40 small photovoltaic film strips stitched together. These cells are patterned to generate enough current to mimic the output of a USB drive on a laptop. Thus, this bikini is able to power devices like iPods and other similar gadgets through the USB connector fixed to the suit.
The good news is that it is still totally safe to use this swimsuit for the activity swimsuits are commonly associated with – swimming. Even though the Solar Bikini has a 5 volt output, none of this energy is stored by the suit making it perfectly safe to go in the water. It’s just important to be completely dry before plugging a device into the bikini again!
Schneider makes each Solar Bikini by hand with the different parts custom ordered.
