Wagan Tech inc has come out with a range of very conveniently sized (pocket-able) solar chargers for consumer electronics. They will charge batteries, iPods, digital cameras etc, all from the sun. The units themselves are very lightweight and come in two distinct types.

Wagan Solar e Power Charger

The Solar e Power unit will also charge 4 AA or AAA batteries, which could be handy as it can also use those same batteries to power or charge anything you plug into it.

There is a selector switch on the back that allows you to switch between three modes:

• Power from car (12V) or solar
• Power from battery (the 4 AA’s or AAA’s that you charged up)
• Charge Battery (Charge the aforementioned AA’s or AAA’s)

Also the charger will handle either NiCD or NiMH. Power from the device is delivered through either a 5V plug on the side (there are multiple connectors included) or via a USB outlet. Wagan Techs’ Solar e Power Charger sells for $49.95.

Wagan Solar e Power II Charger

The next model up is the creatively named Solar e Power II, which has a little more solar surface area (each solar panel measures about 7” across). The Solar e Power II also comes with its own 2000 mAh Li-ion internal battery. This allows you to charge the unit up in the sun and then close it up and use it as a normal external power source.

It comes with 5 adapters for your phones and devices, the standard USB sizes (micro, mini) as well as more specialized ones for iPods and the like. Also included in the pack is a car and AC power supply for non solar charging.

The unit itself has a couple of USB outputs and the 5v phone charging port. Also it has a small LED flashlight on one end.

As a whole the Solar e Power II seems to be fairly sturdily constructed and fairly functional, it pays to read the instructions as there are a few different indicators that you need to be familiar with.
The Solar e Power II from Wagan Tech sells for $89.95

The applications for this range from RFID tags for Identification and tracking through to clothing with circuitry embedded in it. But as the ability to print the circuitry comes ever closer, what will be powering your socks in the coming years?

Blue Spark – Ultra Thin Printed Batteries

Blue Spark Technologies produce printed carbon-zinc batteries, which are small, environmentally friendly and most importantly cheap enough to produce to make them viable. These batteries are also incredibly thin; their standard battery is 750 microns thick (that’s 0.75 of a mm), while their Ultra-Thin series of batteries can go as slim as 500 microns.

The applications for a power source of this nature are boundless, at the moment they’re being used in a lot of RF applications, including one card being used by Sealed Air Corp that monitors and stores temperature data to ensure that food has been produced and stored properly.

As he says in this CNBC Interview Blue Spark Technologies CEO Gary Johnson can see applications for this such as hi tech patient bracelets with stored records, subway or bus passes that display their credit remaining and loyalty cards that track customer information painlessly.

Along with the potential for manifold uses there is the point that these batteries are fairly harmless in the environment. They contain none of the chemicals normally associated with batteries, no mercury or lithium etc. The carbon-zinc chemistry meets all the EU restrictions on hazardous substances and can be safely disposed of.

Konarka – Portable Solar Charging

Ever wanted to have your laptop bag charge your laptop while you went to work? Konarka is working on just such a thing, they produce light weight flexible “Power Plastic” that they hope will become popular as a way to charge up and power personal devices from sunlight.

They envision applications such as a shade umbrella that will power a cooler or a mat that you unroll to charge your cell phones or laptops. Already Neuber a German company is planning to make use of the technology to produce their Energy Sun-bag.