Portable Solar Chargers – our near future?

The world is filled with portable gadgets and gizmos we could not do without now that we have them. Portable solar chargers are the next solution to keeping our new “toys” powered up and ready to go.

The advent of this century has seen a marked rise in the sheer number and volume of gadgets and gizmos designed to make our lives easier, smarter and more interesting. Some of these items are things that just a few short years ago could only be found between the covers of a good science fiction book and today are so taken for granted we would be totally lost without them.

The problem with all of this “new” technology is power or electricity. Every single one of our new can’t live without gadgets and gizmos seem to need it in some form or another. Now this may or may not pose too big of a problem for those things like microwaves and some of the fancier televisions but what about all of our portable toys such as cell phones, MP3 players, GPS systems, camcorders and even our cars. Without power, portable power, all of these things are just so much plastic junk when they run low on juice.

Today however, thanks to massive leaps in technology all of these things can be charged using the sun with a portable solar charger.

For those who think that they do not need a portable solar charger to power up their gadgets and gizmos in an emergency, think again. Consider for a moment a scenario that rarely makes it paste the silver screen horror movie.

You are alone in your car on a back country road and you are lost because you forgot to charge your GPS and left the car charging cord at home. You also forgot to grab the charger for your cell phone, again and it has been beeping the low battery beep at you for the last ½ hour. The car is out of fuel and you have not seen another person, house or vehicle in hours. What do you do?

This is where the monster/mass murderer/villain of the movie enters and you begin a frantic battle to save your life but this is not a movie and you are a very smart person so you reach into your glove box and pull out a solar battery charger, find a nice sunny spot to relax in and plug in both your cell phone and your GPS. Soon you will be able to call for help or program the GPS to get you home.

What is a solar battery charger?

A solar battery charger is a charger that collects sunlight and transforms it into electricity to power your device. To understand what a solar battery charger is you must first understand a little about solar power.

What is solar power?

Solar power is the term used to describe the energy that is given off by the sun. This energy can either be collected and used thermally or collected and turned into electricity. When collecting sunshine to convert into electricity, things called solar panels are used to absorb the energy from sunlight and transform it into electricity.

Our sun offers us a sustainable, pollution free, renewable infinite energy source. As a matter of fact our sun sends enough energy to Earth every single day to power the entire world for a year. The trouble is harnessing that power. To harness the power of the sun and convert it into a usable electrical current requires the use of solar panels.

What are solar panels?

Solar panels are an arrangement of photovoltaic cells which absorb the light from the sun and turn it into electricity. They come in sizes ranging from very small like the ones you see on a solar powered calculator or solar battery charger to very large like the ones you see on homes with solar power.

The way they work is by “knocking” electrons loose from its orbit around the nucleus of an atom or in layman’s words.

A solar cell or photovoltaic cell is made up of a material that is known as a semiconductor such as silicon. When sunlight strikes the cell it is absorbed into it and the energy created by that absorption “knocks” the electrons loose from their orbit around the nucleus of an atom allowing the electrons to flow freely.

Once the electrons are free an imbalance occurs between the negatively charged particles and the positively charged particles which create an electrical field in the semiconductor material or silicon. This electrical field forces them toward the front of the CV cell which creates a negatively charged side, any photons or light particles left behind are forced to create a positive side. When the two sides are connected together they then produce electricity.

Because a solar cell only produces a small amount of electricity many of them are linked together to form a solar panel. The larger the solar panel the more powerful the solar charger.

How do solar chargers work?

To understand how solar battery chargers work you need to understand how the batteries that are in your favorite gadgets and gizmos work.

All chemical batteries create electricity through a chemical reaction. Basically the lithium ion batteries that are popular in many of our favorite “toys” create electricity through an exchange of ions from lithium to carbon. A flow from negative charge to positive charge is what powers your gadgets. To recharge your battery you need to create an electrical flow from positive to negative. Kind of like flipping a glass of water over, pour the water out of the glass for power and refill the glass when empty.

Solar battery chargers work a little different than your average plug in the wall charger. Solar chargers have their own built in battery which the sun replenishes and the solar charger uses to refill the batteries on your cell phone or IPod.

Benefits of a portable solar charger

The biggest advantage to using a solar battery charger is pretty obvious; you do not need to plug into a wall outlet to get power to recharge your device. So if you find yourself lost on some back country road in the middle of nowhere you can still recharge your cell phone and call for help, as long as it is daylight which brings us to the only real disadvantage.

Disadvantages of a solar battery charger

Although most solar battery chargers can and will store electricity in their own batteries for up to a year if it is discharged it cannot be charged at night, on a cloudy day or any other time the sun and its energy giving light is not in evidence.

What devices can be charged with solar battery chargers?

Most solar battery chargers are universal which means that they can be used to charge almost anything that is rechargeable. If you want to charge your laptop though you may want to look into solar chargers built specifically to do so. They will be larger than ones made for cell phones.

A solar charger can be charged up and stored away to be used at a later date, up to one full year later, making them perfect for emergency use. You do not need the sun to use an already charged solar charger.

A sophisticated solar charger will tell you how long the charge will work for your device such as 1 hour of sunlight may equal 20 minutes worth of talk time for a cell phone or up to 50 minutes worth of music for your MP3 player.

A Solar battery charger ranges in price from under $10 to $1775.00. The less expensive solar chargers are usually the smaller unit.

You can even get a large sized portable solar charger that is built into a backpack for easy portability. The backpack sized solar chargers can charge your laptop with ease.

Portable Solar Chargers – our near future? | What is a solar battery charger? | What is solar power? | What are solar panels? | How do solar chargers work? | Benefits of a portable solar charger | Disadvantages of a solar battery charger | What devices can be charged with solar battery chargers?