Foldable Solar Panels Get Juiced For Charging Cars, Laptops |
4 Comments |
| By Michael d'Estries in Energy, Green Products, Solar, Tech Innovations | January 22, 2008 | |
We’re starting to enter the second-generation of personal solar chargers. Those little things –your cell phone, iPod — we’re all covered in the first wave. Now comes foldable panels about the size of a large beach towel that can charge quickly everything from your laptop to a dead car battery.
The latest entry is a product from Brunton called the Solaris 26. To achieve rockstar status in charging, the Solaris uses an extremely efficient solar cell called Copper Indium Gallium diSelenide. Since I have no idea what that means either, I looked it up on Wikipedia and discovered that it allows efficiencies of about 19.5% — the highest currently possible for thin-film.
The cool thing about Brunton’s products is that they can be linked up with additional modules to provide even more juice for whatever you’re running. This particular model — which isn’t expected to ship until sometime next month — will output about 52 volts. Expect to plunk down between $850-$900.
via computer world
Loading ...
Dave Green said,
This looks awesome although it is a little pricey. Hopefully a sign of things to come though!
litesong said,
My 48 Volt, 4 12Volt, electric bike could use something like this. Could it directly charge my batteries without my 48 Volt from 110 AC current charger or would a different means of controlling current be needed?
Portable Panels, Nighttime Solar Collectors, and Dashboard Energy Tracking said,
[...] Foldable Solar Panels [...]
Testicus said,
i have a small thin film photovoltaic cell that uses CIGS technology, and it functions surprisingly well. i use it to recharge a small battery bank (two 12 volt, 5 Ah sealed glass mat batteries), then i use the battery bank to charge all my small electronics. i purchased a new phone about 4 or so months ago and have never once plugged it into an AC outlet to recharge it. i use all DC charging for my PSP, MP3 player, and small AA and AAA batteries.
as a small scale experiment is shows the possibilities of a larger wattage pv-cell… my next cell is going to be the P3-55 made by Global Solar! perhaps, (if i can scrape up enough money) i’ll purchase two! my intention is to use them to electrically separate water to extract the hydrogen for a fuel cell… another experiment.