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If you are the type of person who is forever forgetting to charge your wireless headphones, help may finally be on hand.

It comes as the first commercially available solar-powered headphones are now on sale. The models, by Swedish firm Urbanist and German sports giant Adidas, both have solar panels built into their headbands.

In each case the flexible panels are made by another Swedish company, Exeger, which has spent the past decade working to make them light, thin and powerful enough to do the job.

Exeger's boss Giovanni Fili says it is both a matter of convenience and, more importantly, doing the right thing environmentally.

"Charging - everyone hates it," he says. "But every time you don't charge [using mains electricity] it is a good thing for the world.

"The new generation of young adults expect to be offered tools to do good [for the environment], and that is what we are offering."

Exeger's solar panels are called Power Foyle, and they are just 1.3mm thick. The technology is based around strips of titanium dioxide covered in a natural dye. In very simple terms, the dye absorbs photons from light, which are then converted into electrons.

While approximately only half as efficient as standard silicon-based solar panels of the same size in full sunshine, the titanium dioxide panels are, in addition to being significantly thinner, much easier and cheaper to produce.

The solar-powered headphones still have a built-in battery that can power up to 80 hours of playback time. It is this that the Powerfoyle strip charges. Mr Fili says that currently the tech can one hour's worth of power "from just 20 minutes of English or Swedish summer sunshine".

Yet the panels can also some power from artificial light, such as indoor lighting, so the idea is that the headphones are always charging unless it is the dead of night. And the headphones also still have a power socket if back-up power is required after heavy usage.

Mr Fili adds that solar panels are unlikely to be added to mobile phones any time soon, because so many of us keep our handset in a pocket, and therefore it doesn't have access to light. Instead he envisages the panels being fitted to people's clothing and bags, and phones to be charged from these.