$180 Portable Solar Power for Your Laptop, MP3 Player
by Justin Thomas, Virginia
on 01.21.07

Pat from Will Blog For Experience writes about his experience using a home-made, portable solar kit to power his MacBook. He says: "This kit weighs about 2 lbs, costs $180, and will power my Macbook for 1.75 hours (1.83ghz, browsing the web and checking email via Airport Extreme, bluetooth off, screen brightness about 70%) with a little more than 5 hours of good sun." The folding solar panel he uses is available from the Alt Energy Store. See a picture of the entire kit after the link.

Follow @TreeHugger on Twitter & get our headlines with @TH_rss!
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- 7 Great Weekend Solar Power Projects
- How to Use a Solar Oven: Beans and Rice Recipe
- 5 Reuses for Altoid Tins
- How to Use a Solar Cooker: What Works and What Doesn't
- The Week's Best DIY Projects: Kid-Friendly Coloring Books, Energy-Saving Chargers, and Woven Coasters
- Green Glossary: Nature Deficit Disorder



































The timing of your article is uncanny. I live in Australia and the lack of people harnessing the sun's power is shocking.
Wanting to do exactly what you have achieved - I did a trip over the weekend visiting some electrical supply stores but with my limited knowledge of electronics, I didn't achieve very much.
Your great post is a well timed find and has certainly put me on the right track for building my own. Many thanks!
This is a great idea, we have a free resource of power (The Sun) and we all need to use it more in many ways.
So this would power the MacbookPro 2.33 dual-core for about 15 minutes under normal use. Great, useless.....
So this would power the MacbookPro 2.33 dual-core for about 15 minutes under normal use. Great, useless.....
Yeah, but if you're biking through europe for more than a couple of hours at a time with that solar strip strapped to your back, you can basically get anywhere with some sort of *sh*arge... s'nuff.
Sunlinq 25Watt 12V Portable Power Pack
Our Price: $329.66
Why did the price jump from $180 to $330?
Is there anything cheaper out there that does the same?
Just curious.
So this would power the MacbookPro 2.33 dual-core for about 15 minutes under normal use. Great, useless.....
imagine how much energy and ecological destruction it took to just to sustain your life to the point its at now and to generate tons of gadgets for the expansion of capital and more useless technology. great, useless.....