Portable solar laptops chargers have been around for a little while now, and they offer a great way to extend the battery life of your laptop using renewable, clean energy. While we typically can't run our laptops solely on a portable solar charger the way we can when we plug into a wall outlet, we can get our batteries to last quite a bit longer, or recharge our laptop batteries while turned off.
However, portable solar chargers are not yet perfect, and have always had some sort of issue that makes them undesirable.
There are three key elements to the ideal solar charger: power, portability and price.
The consumer wants something that is strong enough to run or at least trickle charge their laptop enough to work on it while out and about, with the charger not being impossible to carry around, and also not costing an arm, a leg, and a first born child.
The options are getting better, but that doesn't mean choosing the right solar charger has gotten much easier. So we've scoured the market for the best choices in solar chargers, trying to make sure each option is reasonable regarding the three key elements, and put them here for you to make shopping around a little easier.
SolarRolls
This charger has proven itself a favorite among the outdoor types for backpacking and camping excursions.
Power: The SolarRoll comes in three sizes, depending on the output need. The roll that is powerful enough to charge a laptop has an output of 14 watts. It provides a trickle charge, or can provide a full charge in 5 to 10 hours, depending on the quality of sunlight. Multiple rolls can be linked together to get even more output.
Portability: SolarRolls, as the name says, rolls up, making it very easy to carry around. Also, its waterproof durability makes it safer to cart around and use on damp lawns, or café tables where drinks may be spilled. The large SolarRoll, which can suck up enough sunlight to power your laptop, is actually fairly large, measuring 12" wide by 57" long. So you need a pretty long surface area on which to unroll it in the sun. However, it only weighs 17 oz, and since it rolls up, it is easy to cart around.
Price: Ranges from $295 to $655 depending on the size. However, panel that is powerful enough to charge a laptop is the one priced at $655.
The Voltaic Generator
We've been eyeballing this handy solar bag for some time. It comes with battery packs to store energy, holding enough for a full laptop battery charge. It is also large enough to hold a 17" laptop inside.
Power: This is on the more powerful end, generating up to 15 watts. It takes about a day of charging, though.
Portability: The Generator is the essence of portability because it is, in fact, a bag. It is made of recycled PET, which makes it water resistant and light weight — though the bag still is 4.5 pounds. Add to that the weight of a laptop and that's a fairly hefty load.
Price: A tag of $599 puts it on par with other solar chargers. Given that it is also a handy carrying case, the price tag looks a bit more attractive.
Sunshine Solar Briefcase Charger Amorphous 13 Watt
This charger offers a briefcase style, but doesn't double as a briefcase. We talked about it a few years ago, and the fact that it's still around says something for its functionality.
Power: Offering 13 watts, this isn't the most powerful of options, though it is enough to extend the battery time of a laptop while in use.
Portability: While it is shaped like a briefcase, it doesn't carry like one. Rather, it weighs a hefty 9.25 pounds, putting a damper on running around with one during the day. Yet, portability is relative — perhaps you're looking for something to help you out while on a cruise or a remote area, and won't need to be carrying it much. So, the compact size (20.5" x 13" x 1.5" is a nice, small size to cart around.
Price: This charger is surprisingly inexpensive, coming in at about $160, though it is on sale for $90 through October 27th. However, there's a selection of accessories, like a charge regulator ($30), a four-panel connector cable ($18) and others that can bring up the total cost of the system. Still, it is relatively very cheap.
The Notepower
This charger has made previous appearances on TreeHugger, and has hung around for awhile, proving it's handiness among consumers.
Power: The Notepower comes in two options, a 15 watt and a 22 watt version.
Portability: Well, it’s a case, which gives it that two-in-one lovin’. However, unless you have a MacBook Air or other very thin computer, the 1.5†thickness of the folded case won’t carry your laptop. The case opens up and two solar panels fold out. The two panels of the 15 watt version opens up to 24.5†x 13.5†and the 22 watt version has three panels opening up to 37†x 16â€. Both sizes are very workable for laying flat in an open space without needing an excessive amount of room. However, the 15 watt version weighs three pounds, and the 22 watt version weighs 6 pounds, which takes away some of the grab-n-go ease that we would love to see.
Price: The price on the Notepower is very reasonable, coming in at $262 for the 15 watt version and $386 for the 22 watt version. We don’t know how long it takes to gather a charge, so the lower price may be reflective of a lower energy generation efficiency.
Apple Juicz
The Apple Juicz is specific to MacBooks, including Pro and Air versions. It also comes with a pretty cool Element canvas bag.
Power: This is definitely on the higher end for chargability and offers some of the highest outputs. The smaller version can generate up to 18 watts and recharge an Air in 14 hours, the medium size up to 27 watts and recharge an Air in 8 hours, and the largest version up to 55 watts and can recharge an Air in 5 hours. Or, it can help extend your Mac battery for hours if charging while working.
Portability: The Apple Juicz is foldable, which makes it very easy to carry around. However, it’s pretty huge when unfolded. The smallest version unfolds to about 30â€x30†and the largest is a picnic blanket-sized 60â€x42â€. So while it is easy to carry around, it might not be as easy to actually use while on the go.
Price: Like most everything Mac-related, these panels are on the steeper end of the price range, going from $500 to $1000 depending on what size you’re purchasing. However, you are getting some serious wattage from these suckers, so relatively speaking, they aren’t over-the-top-expensive.
Powergorilla & Solargorilla
The SolarGorilla offers awesome portability, but works best as a back-up battery charger, using the solar device to recharge the complimentary PowerGorilla back-up battery pack.
Power: The nice thing about this duo is that if you don’t have sun, you can still have portable power by charging up the PowerGorilla in a wall socket and waltzing off to wherever it is you need backup power. However, it takes about 5-6 hours of wall charging to fill ‘er up, which means even longer in the sun. The SolarGorilla generates on a small 10 watts in direct sunlight, and takes about 6 hours of strong sunlight to charge the PowerGorilla about half way (the PowerGorilla provides 2-6 hours of run time for your laptop with a full charge). But that smaller wattage is still pretty big for such a small device.
Portability: The SolarGorilla folds open from a durable hard case that is water resistant. About 10†x 7.8†x less than one inch thick, and weighing just 1.4 pounds, means that this is highly portable. However, you will have to carry both the SolarGorilla
Price: For the PowerGorilla and SolarGorilla combo, you’ll need to dole out about $580. You’ll also have to shell out a little more if you have a Mac, because you’ll need an Apple MagSafe airline adaptor and one of PowerGorilla’s universal car charger sockets to make it compatible.
A TreeHugger review of the SolarGorilla is underway, so we’ll have an update on this product after we get a better chance to play around with it.
Solaris 26
This is one of the top options for a solar charger when trying to find the best balance of the three Ps.
Power: This solar charger uses CIGS (Copper Indium Gallium diSelenide) technology, which basically means it is using highly efficient thin film tech to help get some serious power out of a small size. Indeed, it is capable of a 26 watt output. It is ideal for a trickle charge, or claims to be able to fully charge a laptop in 4-8 hours, depending on the quality of sunlight.
Portability: The whole thing folds up nicely into a little package, the same 8.5â€x11†size of a piece of paper, and about an inch thick. When unfolded, it is only 21.5â€x37.5â€, which is relatively small compared to other foldable chargers. It is a little on the heavy side, weighing in at 28 oz, but not by any means too heavy to tote around.
Price: At $620, this is a decent deal for the portability and power provided by the charger, and is not expensive compared to other chargers available. However, we also found it at Sierra Solar for just $390 making it a really stellar deal.
More on Solar Charging for Devices:
$180 Portable Solar Power for Your Laptop, MP3 Player
The First Solar Computer Case that Charges Computers
Solar Powered Blogging on a Bike Trip
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