Do You Get the Day Off If It’s Cloudy?

Frustrated with cellular phones and laptops that run out of power?

Samsonite Corp. and Besicorp Group Inc. have teamed up to produce a briefcase equipped with a solar panel that can collect solar energy for such electronic goods.

The luggage manufacturer and the alternative-energy company announced a joint venture in which Sun Wize Energy Systems Inc., a subsidiary of Besicorp., will manufacture the battery panels and Samsonite will install them in its briefcases.

The panel unit will be about the height and width of a standard sheet of paper and as thick as two credit cards. The panel, which is featherweight, can pool energy from direct sunlight or indirect artificial lighting.

A universal plug, similar to the attachment that can tap battery power through a car’s cigarette lighter, will transfer the collected energy to cellular phones, laptops and other electronic gear, according to a Samsonite spokesman. The solar briefcase should be on the market by the spring of 1995, he said.