A transparent photovoltaic film that lives on top of traditional displays could provide substantial amounts of power to mobile devices. By substantial, we mean that as long as you spend enough time outside, you might never have to charge your phone ever again.
A French company called Wysips has somehow managed to create a 100-micron thin film that, while essentially invisible, can produce enough power from sunlight to fully charge a cellphone in about six hours. This translates into about 30 minutes of talk time per hour of sunlight, which is three times better than those bulky cases with traditional solar panels on the back.
Cellphones are the most obvious application for this technology, there's really nothing preventing every single gadget with a battery and a screen from taking advantage from a trickle of extra power, and you can start looking for consumer devices with this technology integrated into their screens within the next 12 months. For high drain devices the battery boost will certainly be less noticeable, but there's nothing wrong with an extra five or 10 minutes or whatever of plug-freedom.
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