I had the chance to test the Anker 14W solar panel this morning. This $49.99 panel caught my eye at CeBIT recently and not only because of the price and mobility. The two USB ports make it incredibly simple to load power packs and phones and now that micro USB charging is available on many […]
Last night in Bonn, Germany, the sirens went off. I heard them at 01:12 and wondered what the hell was going on. I turned to Twitter and found out within minutes that the alarm was for the fire service only (rarely if ever used now. It was part of a wake-up system.) and then that […]
At some point it will happen but 2014 isn’t the right year for integrating solar power into consumer phones, tablets and notebooks, especially for Apple. I read a report about solar power integration on the next iPhone this morning and while I find it stimulating to think about this, it’s probably not going to happen in […]
I’ve just finished a full review of the Toshiba Encore WT8 Windows 8.1 Tablet. As expected it’s incredibly efficient, and perfect as a solar-powered PC. You can do everything on this. From web browsing to video editing to Office work with a full keyboard and external monitor.
One of the problems of powering laptops and tablets by solar is that you need a buffer between the module and the device in order to protect the device against wild voltage variations. Often that’s a lithium ion battery pack. In many cases the battery pack doesn’t take full advantage of low-current situations at the […]
The Changers solar panel, power pack/data logger and community is an interesting concept and, I think, a well designed product. Lithium battery charging and solar power don’t fit together easily but when they do you have the potential to get a powerful and lightweight solution. The equipment arrived today, it’s in working order and over […]
Its been a few months since I’ve posted anything to the solar pc blog but having just watched a BBC World program about e.Quinox and their energy kiosks I felt it was time. The program is available on YouTube and worth a watch. What struck me was that the two most talked about advantages of […]
One of the 45,000 solar panels that are currently being distributed Originally uploaded by Christoph Derndorfer Awesome. Christoph Derndorfer (@random_musings on Twitter, http://christoph-d.blogspot.com/) is out in Lima with the OLPC project and he’s just posted this image on Flickr. 45,000 of these panels are currently being distributed. I’m hoping Christoph has the time to post […]
In my last post I wrote about the Viliv S10, a super-efficient Windows-based PC that would serve well for solar-powered work duties. Last week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona I tested out another interesting bit of kit. This one looks much the same but in terms of internals, it’s like chalk and cheese compared […]
Does this mean goodbye to my solar panel, my 1KG lead-acid battery and the box full of cables I have? Does these mean that you won’t have to spend over $1000 on a Solar UMPC kit now? iUnika have announced a range of very low end, low-cost netbooks which include one with a solar-panel on […]