Solar Panels Charge Phones, Laptops, Even Refrigerators
Goal Zero demonstrates at CES solar panels with heavy-duty rechargers for a variety of portable (and not so portable) devices.
Goal Zero makes a variety of portable power solutions, from solar panels to rechargers, some of them beefy enough to light up an entire base camp (that would be the Extreme 350 Explorer Kit), and others, like the company's seven-watt solar panel (the Nomad 7), that can recharge a simple smartphone. The company was showing off a variety of these products at the CES this week, including a 90-watt solar panel that can run a refrigerator for a couple of days.
[ What's new at CES? Check out CES 2012 Preview: 16 Hot Gadgets. ]
One of Goal Zero's newest products is the Sherpa 50, a compact, lightweight recharger with 50 watts of power capacity. It can charge laptops as well as smartphones, and includes a port for directly connecting a laptop, eliminating the need for an AC inverter. It includes a 12-volt port (it can be charged from a cigarette lighter), the laptop port, a power port, and a USB port. An optional inverter adds a $60 price tag to the $250 battery unit. The Sherpa 50 will be available in June.
The Nomad is the portable solar panel, and comes in a variety of sizes. Goal Zero was demonstrating its compact Nomad 13.5, which provides 13.5 watts of power and folds up into a convenient case. This solar panel runs about $200.
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