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A solar charger employs solar energy to supply electricity to devices or batteries. Small, portable solar chargers are used to charge phones and electronics on the go. They use various solar panel technologies like thin film or monocrystalline panels. Larger stationary solar chargers can charge battery banks for energy storage. Advances in portable solar technology are helping bring reliable off-grid power to rural areas globally.

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60 views5 pages

Solar Charger: Jump To Navigation Jump To Search

A solar charger employs solar energy to supply electricity to devices or batteries. Small, portable solar chargers are used to charge phones and electronics on the go. They use various solar panel technologies like thin film or monocrystalline panels. Larger stationary solar chargers can charge battery banks for energy storage. Advances in portable solar technology are helping bring reliable off-grid power to rural areas globally.

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rjohn 7
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Solar charger

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this


article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be
challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Solar charger" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December
2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Suntactics sCharger-5

Front and back views of a small, portable solar charger with two AAA Batteries and USB output.
Solar charger integrated into a backpack

Creative Edge Solar-5, 1.2 w solar panel with 5000 mAh internal battery

A solar charger is a charger that employs solar energy to supply electricity to devices


or batteries. They are generally portable.
Solar chargers can charge lead acid or Ni-Cd battery banks up to 48 V and hundreds
of ampere-hours (up to 4000 Ah) capacity. Such type of solar charger setups generally
use an intelligent charge controller. A series of solar cells are installed in a stationary
location (ie: rooftops of homes, base-station locations on the ground etc.) and can be
connected to a battery bank to store energy for off-peak usage. They can also be used
in addition to mains-supply chargers for energy saving during the daytime.
Most portable chargers can obtain energy from the sun only. Some, including the
Kinesis K3, and GeNNex Solar Cell 2 can work either way (recharged by the sun or
plugged into a wall plug to charge up). Examples of solar chargers in popular use
include:

 Small portable models designed to charge a range of different mobile phones, cell


phones, iPods or other portable audio equipment.
 Fold out models designed to sit on the dashboard of an automobile and plug into the
cigar/12v lighter socket to keep the battery topped up while the vehicle is not in use.
 Flashlights/torches, often combined with a secondary means of charging, such as a
kinetic (hand crank generator) charging system.
 Public solar chargers permanently installed in public places, such as parks, squares and
streets, which anyone can use for free.
Contents

 1Voltage regulator
 2Solar chargers on the market
 3See also
 4References

Voltage regulator[edit]
A solar panel can produce a range of charging voltages depending
upon sunlight intensity, so a voltage regulator must be included in the charging circuit so
as to not over-charge (overvoltage) a device such as a 12 volt car battery.

Solar chargers on the market[edit]


Portable solar chargers are used to charge cell phones and other small electronic
devices on the go. Chargers on the market today use various types of solar panels,
ranging from thin film panels with efficiencies from 7-15% (amorphous silicon around
7%, CIGS closer to 15%), to the slightly more efficient monocrystalline panels which
offer efficiencies up to 18%.
The other type of portable solar chargers are those with wheels which enable them to
be transported from one place to another and be used by a lot of people. They are
semi-public, considering the fact that are used publicly but not permanently installed. A
good example of this kind of portable solar charger is the Strawberry Mini device. [1]

Public solar charger for mobile phones, in Obrenovac, Serbia

The solar charger industry has been plagued by companies mass-producing low


efficiency solar chargers that don't meet the consumer's expectations. This in turn has
made it hard for new solar charger companies to gain the trust of consumers. Solar
companies are starting to offer high-efficiency solar chargers. When it comes to
permanently installed public solar chargers, Strawberry energy Company from Serbia
has invented and developed the first public solar charger for mobile devices, Strawberry
Tree. Due to a built in rechargeable battery which stores energy, it can function without
sunshine or at night. Other companies such as Voltaic Systems, Poweradd and others
have started to push better products onto the market as well.

The JOOS Orange by SolarJOOS.

Rural African villagers holding portable solar charger

Portable solar power is being utilized in developing countries to power lighting as


opposed to utilizing kerosene lamps which are responsible for respiratory infections,
lung and throat cancers, serious eye infections, cataracts as well as low birth weights.
Solar power provides an opportunity for rural areas to "leapfrog" traditional grid
infrastructure and move directly to distributed energy solutions.
Some solar chargers also have an on-board battery which is charged by the solar panel
when not charging anything else. This allows the user to be able to use the solar energy
stored in the battery to charge their electronic devices at night or when indoors.
Solar chargers can also be rollable or flexible and are manufactured using thin film PV
technology. Rollable solar chargers may include Li-ion batteries.
Currently, foldable solar panels are coming down in price to the point that almost
anyone can deploy one while at the beach, biking, hiking, or at any outdoor location and
charge their cellphone, tablet, computer etc. As advances in the technology continue to
be made, new products will be able to be expand into third world countries faster than
ever before. Recently, billionaire Elon Musk unveiled a new battery system that may
allow off-grid systems that rely solely on solar power to recharge them to be deployed
anywhere on the planet, thus possibly ending the need for strictly grid-based energy
systems.

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