Other Renewable Energy

Producing Electricity By Wearing Clothes

A special type of thread can produce electricity

By: Liam Daquioag, Journalist

January 27, 2025

What if we could make energy from the most basic of tasks? That’s what the Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden is doing. They have created a type of thread that is able to produce energy. This potentially means that the clothes you wear could become a powerhouse.

How It Works

Heat likes to spread out evenly. If you have a hot dish out on your dinner table, it will slowly cool down until it reaches the same temperature as the environment. In other words, it reaches room temperature.

A diagram of a thermoelectric generator

Your body produces heat all the time, so heat will escape from your body constantly.

Thermoelectric materials take advantage of this by producing electricity from the heat your body produces. These materials convert temperature differences (the difference of temperature between two objects) into useful electricity.

Researchers covered fabric in conductive plastic. The plastic is non-toxic, flexible, and light, to make sure the fabric is safe to use. They used the thread in a few textile squares for experimenting.

The Experiment

To replicate the conditions of a thermal between your body and the environment, the researchers placed the squares between a hot and cold surface. When they checked for any electricity…

It worked! When the largest textile was subject to a 30°C temperature difference, the result was 0.006 volts. While this may not seem like a lot, keep in mind that the material could be scaled up to an article of clothing, producing much more electricity. Additionally, a voltage converter could be used to charge devices.

Is It Practical?

This new breakthrough could potentially mean you could charge your devices simply by wearing clothes.

What about washing? Here’s what one of the researchers has to say:

“After seven washes, the thread retained two-thirds of its conducting properties. This is a very good result, although it needs to be improved significantly before it becomes commercially interesting,” – Mariavittoria Craighero, part of the study

While washing the fabric does reduce the effectiveness of the thread, it’s still functional, which is a step in the right direction.

Won’t these clothes eventually wear out? Well, they say that the thread is still effective even after a whole year.

How about mass-production? Are fabrics like these easy to make? Not as of now. It took 4 days to create the squares, which had to be sewn by hand. However, the researchers think that production could be completely automatic, making access to these kinds of fabrics more accessible.