At the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit in early July, Sharp displayed a number of environmentally conscious designs, including a thin-film solar cell module and a 65-inch LCD TV that purportedly consumes half the power of current conventional LCDs.

The most interesting piece was a prototype of a 26-inch LCD TV that can be powered via traditional means or via a solar panel.

When you use it as a traditional TV, Sharp claims that the low-power-consuming design uses about “one third the power and has around one half the annual energy consumption of existing LCDs.”

Those who want to get off the grid can also mate the unit with a solar panel that has roughly the same surface area as the TV’s screen.

Sharp says the product is ideal for the environmentally conscious consumer, as well as the 1.6 billion people that live in parts of the world that do not have utility-supplied electricity.

I’m not sure a solar-powered TV is the first thing those 1.6 billion people need, but hey, it’s a nice thought. No word yet on when or if we’ll see a real-world product here in the U.S.