A start-up called Sego Innovations is going to disrupt the solar industry with a super cool and revolutionary origamic-based solar charger. The product, dubbed Sego Travel Solar Charger, will be the world’s first origami travel solar charger. The team completely redesigned the earth-based solar charger with a novel origami structure that would allow for ease of transportation.
The shortcomings of solar power generation are that it requires a large surface area to generate significant electricity. This means it is not the most inconvenient to bring it off the grid without a car. While folding solar panels have been around for quite some time, the engineers at Sego Innovations what to take it to the next level, i.e., small package, big panel. To achieve this, the engineers studied how NASA employs origami when deploying space-based solar arrays and brings that space-based tech to Earth.
The team decided that origami serves the purpose best as it allows products with reduced dimensions and enhanced structural strength while allowing for quick deployment. Basically, it lets you carry a big panel in a small package. In the case of the Sego Travel Solar Charger, the origamic design allows it to deploy to 8x its stowed size which is almost 3x more than a conventional tri-fold panel in the market.
Speaking of dimensions, the folded size of 7.5 x 7.5 x 1.25 inches (19 x 19 x 3.2 cm) unfolds into 20 x 38.4 x 1/8 inches (50.8 x 97.5 x 0.32 cm) that has 2.56 square feet (0.24 square meter) deployed area. The device will be IP67 rated and has an operating temperature of between -4°F to 185°F (-20 to 85 Celsius).
It is designed to power small to medium-sized devices directly. It can also recharge existing portable batteries and small power chargers like power banks, power stations, et cetera.
The Sego Travel Solar Charger will be available through a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter later this month. Meanwhile, you can learn more about it at segoinnovations.com.
Images: Sego Innovations.
