When it comes to solar power not all people share the same enthusiasm. Some find the subject mundane and without excitement. However, solar power is an important part of our future and will play a big role in years to come. Therefore it is important to entice excitement in others. One such person is designer Andrew Schneider. The very creative Schneider designed the first ever solar power bikini.

The eco savvy solar power swimwear provides electricity to portable devices while you bask away in the African sun. Schneider, from the University of New York, was attending a brainstorming session when he came up with the idea. He said that he didn’t really have anything so he jokingly leaned over to his friend and told him that he was going to make a bikini that could cool your beer at the beach. He then decided there was some merit in the idea and started work on developing a prototype – before realising there were an important stumbling block.

The solar power bikini, appropriately named iKini, as many advantages and although it can’t cool down a beer at the beach it can charge your phone and your iPod. There wasn’t enough surface area for the iKini to provide enough energy to power a cool bag but Schneider added USB ports to the design and so doing found a brilliant use for his solar power design. The 30 year old designer sewed together 40 paper-thin photo-voltaic panels together with soft conductive thread to produce his iKini. Even if you don’t find solar geysers South Africa intriguing as yet, at least now you don’t need to be an environmental enthusiast to find solar power panels interesting.

The next step is to design board shorts for men which will have enough surface area to create enough solar power that will enable ice cold drinks on hot summer days. Another fantastic advantage for the solar power swimwear is that you are able to go swimming with the swimwear as long as you dry off properly afterwards. Solar power becomes fashion design, one step towards getting everyone interested.