Luxury solar jacket for the renewable energy investor or entrepreneur who has everything

Italian designer Ermenegildo Zegna has shown a high-end solar jacket at a fashion show.

The forthcoming Solar JKT from Zegna Sport is "the first premium segment" [read: morbidly expensive] outerwear product in the world that can recharge a cell phone, iPod or other device using solar power, the company claimed.

It's certainly not the first solar jacket. Just the first from a brand-name designer.

Zegna designed the item with Germany-based Interactive Wear's iSolarX technology. In the basic configuration, two small silicon-based, monocrystalline or polycrystalline solar modules (each about 90x55 mm) generate a charging power of approximately 1 Watt in direct sunlight.

The modules are mounted on a neoprene collar; the power is transmitted through conducting textile leads and stored temporarily in a buffer battery or fed directly to a connected device.

The Zegna Solar JKT is to be available in Zegna's 2008 spring/summer collection.

No pricing information was announced.