Solar panel battery chargers are an increasingly common way of providing power for devices in remote areas, or for devices located in places where running a new set of underground power lines would be more expensive than the recharger. As the cost of solar cell technology drops, these devices will become ever more widespread.

Identification

• Solar panel battery chargers are devices that use the electricity generated by a solar cell to recharge a battery. There are designs for both detachable batteries (you take the battery out of the device and insert it into a purpose-built recharger, as with a normal battery recharger that uses a wall power outlet), and also devices that have a built-in solar cell to recharge the battery while it is still attached to the device. Solar lamps, solar-powered radios and many highway monitoring devices are examples of the latter.

Function

• Solar cells convert sunlight into electricity using the photovoltaic effect. This harnesses the characteristic for particular substances to emit electrons when they are hit by electromagnetic radiation, including sunlight. The electrons emitted in a solar cell are turned into electric current.

Time Frame

• Most solar cell designs can produce electricity for at least 20 years before they begin to degrade.

Types

• There are a wide variety of devices for recharging common batteries using solar energy. For example, there are a number of products on the market for 6 and 12 volt and AA type batteries, and these are especially popular with campers and other people who need to keep their electronics running in remote areas. The solar-powered radio with battery has been a popular novelty item for many years. Solar rechargers are now increasingly common for garden and walkway lamps, as they negate the need to attach such lamps to a power supply (even if one is readily available), sparring the cost of both wiring and burying that wiring. This is also the case with other stand-alone devices with a fixed, predictable power requirement, such as parking meters. Finally, many devices in areas where no power supply is available are operated using batteries and solar rechargers, and examples can be found on just about any interstate in America.

Considerations

• The main consideration in using a solar battery recharger is cost. An AA battery recharger using a wall socket costs between roughly $12 to $151, with some very cheap models coming in as low as $5. A solar recharger can also be had for the same price, but with a small solar cell that will take literally all day (and a sunny day at that) to fully recharge a set of batteries. Truly comparable models cost between $50 to $90. Solar rechargers are therefore most useful in areas where a regular power supply can not be had, or accessing it will cost more than the recharger would.

• 1 x Solar Panel Battery Charger
• 1 x USB Cable