Solar Powered Products

Picture it: you hike for hours, and find yourself deep in the wilderness. All around you, the Rocky Mountains majestically reach for the sky. As you set up camp, you realize that your iPod and flashlight are a little low on power. Unfolding a couple handy flexible solar panels, you use the free energy from the sun to start recharging your devices.Shaking your head, you remember the old days of environmentally unfriendly disposable batteries.

One of the coolest consumer solar products, in my opinion, is portable solar panels for hiking, kayaking, camping and any outdoor activities which take you far away from the energy grid. These handy solar panels can be taken almost anywhere, ans used to recharge your cell phone, radio, iPod or laptop. Panels such as these are considered a passive electrical source, so they won’t run anything that needs household power. For that application, a battery and an inverter would be needed. This might be a little much to pack in on your back. I guess you will have to forget about the fridge, deepfryer or microwave, huh.

For smaller electronic items, however, these lightweight and portable flexible solar panels are great. They can be found in foldable panels and rollable solar panels. Some can even be found sewn into backpacks, hats and on sweaters! The folding solar panels were made for military applications, and as such are designed to be extremely durable. Same with the rollable solar panels, which were designed to be laid out on boat decks and walked on. That means these units should be able to take a little abuse if necessary.

So, next trip you take into the outback or the wilderness, you don’t have to leave all your electronic tos behind. Now you can locate one of these flexible solar panels and recharge your equipment anywhere that the sun shines. Happy adventuring!