Charging

A select number of Boston area parks will soon be host to solar-powered benches, dubbed Soofa, which will charge visitor's smartphones and monitor the environment.

While it's already possible to wirelessly recharge smartphones in cars, those cars need to be equipped with a special charging pad. Thanks to a new nanogenerator, however, it might soon be possible to place the phone anywhere in any car, letting the vehicle's vibrations provide the power.

Researchers have developed a self-charging power cell that directly converts mechanical energy to chemical energy, storing the power until it is released as electricity.

America's first public-use, quick-charge station for electric vehicles has just been opened by Portland General Electric and NEC

GE has enlisted the creative talents of Yves Behar to produce a user-friendly, durable and pleasantly curvy charging solution for the upcoming electric revolution

The iCharge DX/Lite can recharge multiple mobile devices using solar power, USB and AC.