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POC Omne Eternal solar-powered helmet powers built-in lighting for endless visibility

Written by Cory Benson
POC Omne Eternal solar-powered helmet with integrated lighting, night mode
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The new POC Omne Eternal is set to be the world’s first solar-powered cycling helmet, integrating its own self-powered rear lighting. Charging its internal battery under any ambient light source – indoors or outside under the sun – the Omne Eternal’s built-in lighting will always shine bright, keeping you visible whenever you ride.

POC Omne Eternal solar-powered helmet with integrated lighting

POC Omne Eternal solar-powered helmet with integrated lighting, detail
c. POC

POC has been teasing their solar-powered helmet project for almost two years, working together with Swedish photovoltaic energy company Exeger’s unique Powerfoyle tech. While it hadn’t always been entirely clear what that energy generated would do – automatic, perpetually-powered visibility lighting follows POC’s official mission of extending rider safety… “protect lives and reduce the consequences of accidents for athletes and anyone inspired to be one“.

Omne Eternal’s Powerfoyle photovoltaic tech details

POC Omne Eternal solar-powered helmet with integrated lighting, tech details

The Omne Eternal is POC’s first use of the innovative “light-harvesting” Powerfoyle material, and its application is used sparingly. In-molded across the top of the helmet over the regular EPS foam and in between the regular polycarbonate shell, the Powerfoyle photovoltaic cells peek through in three spots.

POC Omne Eternal solar-powered helmet with integrated lighting, automatic off & on

It doesn’t take up a lot of real estate on the helmet and is almost unnoticeable if you didn’t know what you are looking for. But those three small PV solar panels can “convert any light source, indoor or outdoor, into electrical power”. Paired with a small internal battery and a red rear LED light for visibility, the Omne Eternal automatically lights up when you put the helmet on to ride.

No buttons needed to turn it on or off thanks to internal sensors.

And it never needs charging.

POC Omne Eternal solar-powered helmet – Pricing & availability

POC Omne Eternal solar-powered helmet with integrated lighting, side

The new POC x Exeger solar-powered Powerfoyle tech will first be made available on this 250€ POC Omne Eternal helmet starting this summer, with direct online sales from June 2021. The subtle Uranium black matte doesn’t scream hi-tech, but also includes POC’s SPIN rotational impact protection pads and normal ventilation, as well as the integrated solar-powered rear light.

POCsports.com
Cory Benson
4,470 articles

Cory Benson is the EU Tech Editor of Bikerumor.com.

Cory has been writing about mountain bikes, enduro, cyclocross, all-road, gravel bikes & bikepacking for over 25 years, even before the industry created some of these names. Prior to Bikerumor, Cory was a practicing Architect specializing in environmental sustainability, has designed bike shops & bike components, and worked as a bike shop mechanic.

Based in the Czech Republic for 15+ years, he is a technical mountain biker, adventurous gravel rider, and short & medium-haul bikepacker. Cory travels extensively across Europe riding bikes, meeting with key European product developers, industry experts & tastemakers for an in-depth review of what’s new, and what’s coming next.

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yogibimbi
yogibimbi
4 years ago

Nice. Is there an option to recharge via USB if the sun runs out? Or it would be cool if they could use a USB-chargeable AAA battery or two as their energy buffer, that way you can keep always some spares around. Also, of course, having front lights would be the holy grail, and having some kind of charge indicator where you can see without mirror or taking the helmet off, that your light still shines on. On the case that there was a front light, of course, this would also be the indicator.

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yogibimbi
yogibimbi
4 years ago
Reply to  yogibimbi

To elaborate on USB-chargeable AA / AAAs, there is Pale Blue, for example, and they work pretty well… https://paleblueearth.com/

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Miclaroc
Miclaroc
4 years ago

Notice they don’t provide LUMENS or any other measure of these lights brightness – can’t imagine that they can be that bright if only using these tiny little solar units to charge them so seems pretty gimmicky and useless to me. No point in having lights if you can’t see them

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Juan de Bobo
Juan de Bobo
4 years ago
Reply to  Miclaroc

That’s a pretty weak hot-take. It seems like you don’t understand how little power it takes to illuminate properly bright LEDs. And POC isn’t some vaporware newcomer. They make pretty good stuff. I’d hold off on the FUD until you actually see how it works.

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Cory Benson
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Cory Benson
4 years ago

@Yogi, Unless you store in in a dark closet, it seems like even a bit of ambient indoor lighting will keep it always charged. No backup required. We’ll try to test one out to see how much light it needs, as soon as it is available. @Micl, we’ll have to try ourselves to see how bright it is…

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Miclaroc
Miclaroc
4 years ago
Reply to  Cory Benson

Thanks please do especially if they are to be used as daylight lights as well. I’d have thought a better solution would be a usb recharge capacity with solar to keep it topped up. Comparison to a good quality rear light would also be helpful in term of beam spread, throw visibility at various distances, times of day, angles off-center etc. pretty much things we should be measuring when determining quality of of light design. Thanks!

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Smokestack
Smokestack
4 years ago

I’m of two minds on this. Plus side is putting lights up high makes a heap of sense, as does integrating solar recharging. Minus side is a bucket is essentially a disposable item, and the added electronics go to waste as the helmet does. Making a semi integrated system where you can transfer components over to a replacement lid would cut down on the waste factor of the helmet, and cut down on the cost of a replacement lid at the same time. With that, I’ll take a pass.

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lihtan
lihtan
4 years ago
Reply to  Smokestack

I like seeing more bike products that have integrated lighting. Although it’s not impossible to make something modular, it does often complicates the design, and adds extra bulk and weight. If I had this this helmet, I would just harvest the electronics when the helmet reached the end of it’s service life.

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Smokestack
Smokestack
4 years ago
Reply to  lihtan

A friend works in e waste reclamation and that has opened my eyes to what waste is generated across industries, one showing the waste generated due to component integration. There’s no need to design something that can’t be serviceable when one component in the system fails/reaches the end of its service life. It may look great (and it does) but this is a wasteful design.

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-s
-s
4 years ago

I have a non-solar Omne. I really like it, but mine is white and bright orange. Why wouldn’t they want to make this in their AVIP colors for increased visibility?

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