Foldable Solar Battery Charger
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA 
on 01.16.06
Hot on the heels of the world's only pocket-sized solar lighter comes the worlds lightest and most compact solar charger. Weighing in at just nine ounces, this foldable charger fits in most backpacks and laptop bags and is powerful enough to charge most personal electronic accessories. Laptops, cell phones, iPods and PDAs all fit the bill, and it'll even charge NiMh, NiCd or Lithium ion batteries with an accessory charger. Each charger provides 10 watts of power (operating at 15.6 Volts) and can be daisy-chained together for anyone who needs solar mega-charging. It's pretty spendy, at US $299, but seems like a great fit for anyone who's doing some serious off-the-grid living or traveling and needs heavy-duty charging capacity. Available from Sundance Solar
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These chargers are actually made by PowerFilm Solar; their site have tons of information about their products:
http://www.powerfilmsolar.com/index.htm
Though they are distributed by Sundance Solar in the USA (and four other companies) PowerFilm Solar has a list of other distributors around the world:
http://www.powerfilmsolar.com/products/consumer_ready/rollables/purchase.htm
solar power - $.
not much. more later.
These foldable panels are awesome! I just bought one. I am an avid hiker, and can't wait to take this on one of my trips this summer. I don't like to backpack with a lot of weight, and this panel weighs under a pound.
I also have traveled to countries on a different electrical current then the US, instead of having to carry around a voltage convertor, and a battery charger I will definately use this to charge my batteries.
Looks pretty cool, but it only cranks out 10 watts...not enough power to charge my laptop.