No More Batteries: Self-Charging Power Textiles

Imagine charging a fitness tracker, only it’s not plugged to a USB cable, but into your clothes. The arrival of functional fabrics capable of generating electricity may well herald in a new era that will see the powering of devices through fabrics. These textiles are on the cutting edge of technology and can harvest energy from a variety of sources, including the wearer’s body heat (thermal energy), direct sunlight (solar energy), or the motion (kinetic energy) of the wearer, and converting them into a usable form of power. In a report by Transparency Market Research, energy-harvesting textiles are identified as a subset of the booming global smart textiles market, which is predicted to be worth US$7.73 billion by 2023—growing from a mere US$7 million in 2014.1