My family never got to know when I would be home at Christmas, because the battery on my Blackberry regularly dies after a hectic day, like the other bunny in the Duracell ads. It’s not that there are no recharging places anywhere: airports have power outlets but it takes time to charge a phone, and usually, the few outlets you see, are already taken. That’s when I decided to look at options and found a solar powered battery charger for my phone. Now, I just get a window seat on the plane, suction the solar panel to the window, and charge away.
This isn’t any kind of environmental conscience at work either; business travelers just find it incredibly convenient to carry their own lightweight power station around with them. Solar generation works for most places, but little dynamos powered by a crank you turn, do pretty well in other places too where there are medical gadgets to power in an emergency situation like Haiti saw recently.
You know how laptop batteries just run flat in four hours – what would it look like if emergency workers had to call it off to go fetch fresh batteries every once in a while? Companies like Automated Media Systems go after this market, and make custom solar panels that can power laptops, motion picture cameras, emergency rescue equipment and lighting.
The solar powered battery charger has been around for about 15 years now; the panels back then were somewhat cumbersome, and unreliable. Those issues have largely disappeared as mass production in the solar panel industry has taken root.
Even a tiny conventional gasn generator can weigh 50 pounds, it makes a lot of noise and would be unwelcome in most places. The solar powered battery charger isn’t really up to the task of charging anything larger than a laptop. The best part of it may be that solar panels are not on the TSA’s list of dangerous items to carry on a flight.
Of course, large batteries are still not welcome because they’re just too dangerous. If you think about it, your own little power station kind of sounds like something out of Star Trek. Has it been that long since we used to watch Star Trek then?