Solar charger
A solar charger employs solar energy to supply electricity to devices or charge batteries. They are generally portable.
Solar chargers can charge lead acid or Ni-Cd battery banks up to 48 V and hundreds of ampere-hours (up to 4000 Ah) capacity. Such type of solar charger setups generally use an intelligent charge controllers. A series of solar cells are installed in a stationary location (ie: rooftops of homes, base-station locations on the ground etc.) and can be connected to a battery bank to store energy for off-peak usage. They can also be used in addition to mains-supply chargers for energy saving during the daytime.
Most portable chargers can obtain energy from the sun only. Some, including the Kinesis K3, and GeNNex Solar Cell 2 can work either way (recharged by the sun or plugged into a wall plug to charge up). Examples of solar chargers in popular use include:
Small portable models designed to charge a range of different mobile phones, cell phones, iPods or other portable audio equipment.