More interesting news from the electronic book reader department: shortly after Barnes & Noble announced plans to unveil the first color eReader, it looks like LG is vying to put out the first solar-powered digital book reader.

The reader from LG Display will be equipped with a solar cell developed in-house, allowing the device to charge about a day’s worth of reading time with 4 to 5 hours of exposure to sunlight.

The 6-inch display panel will employ a thin-film solar cell that is both lightweight and small enough to avoid adding extra bulk to the eReader at a mere 0.7mm thick (about the width of a credit card). The solar LG reader could help stave off the worry about running out of battery life in the middle of an engrossing reading session.

Because the energy requirements of E-Ink based eReaders are already fairly low, however — with power generally required only to refresh a page — LG’s solar reader might not end up being quite the game changer they’re probably hoping for. And with Amazon aggressively trying to keep the Kindle in the lead with its recent price cut and international version, LG will have to hustle to find a class of very heavy readers (or very environmentally-conscious folks) to market this to.

Still, a solar-powered eReader might be just the ticket for frequent travelers and researchers or others who have a tendency to be off the grid for long stretches of time. Would you consider picking up a solar-powered reader over the currently-available slate of eReaders, and if so what price point would it have to be to make it worth your while?

[via Inhabitat]