Solar sense

When someone says ‘solar power’, you might be forgiven for thinking of expensive rooftop installations for renewable energy, or far off plans to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels by building giant arrays of solar panels in the desert.

Solar power is making the biggest difference to our lives at the much smaller end of the scale, though, where it’s proving highly convenient and very cost effective.

Take the newest AA and AAA solar powered battery chargers from Freeloader. Not long ago, portable panels were expensive and used mainly by backpackers or festival goers who wouldn’t be going near a mains outlet for a few days.

Now, they are better built, faster charging and can pay for themselves in four or five days.

How solar panels work

Solar panels make use of the ‘photovoltaic effect’, which was discovered by Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel in 1839.

Becquerel noticed that when certain metals are exposed to sunlight, the energy absorbed causes electrons to break free of their orbits and move around, creating an electrical current.

There are several ways of manufacturing a modern solar panel, most of which use crystaline silicon compounds for the photosensitive material.

Like all cool technologies, they were first commercialised for use in the space program, and techniques for building them are constantly improving.

It seems obvious, but if you are using solar power, positioning it to receive as much sunlight as possible increases the amount of electricity generated significantly.

Because of the way electrons travel around the photosensitive material, accidentally covering part of a solar panel in shade can reduce its lifespan by up to 70%.

Consistent, rather than bright, light is what’s important, though. Many solar devices will work almost as well in winter as they do in summer – even in cloudy Britain.

Get solar in your system

For the gadget lover, solar chargers can either be device specific, like an iPhone sleeve with panels on the back, or have a variety of fittings for popular mobile phones and battery sizes.

Thanks to recent improvements in design, it’s even possible to charge heavy duty batteries for laptops and cameras from some chargers.

The best will have an internal battery, which the panels keep topped up for an emergency and some even have an LED torch built in too.

There are loads of other applications for solar panels, like garden lovers who have been using battery powered lights with built in solar chargers to reduce the cost of laying mains cable under their patios for several years, and you’ll even find solar powered water features and security lights which are as convenient to install as they are cheap.

And on top of everything else you can feel secure in the knowledge that every extra Watt of energy that you generate through solar power – whether it’s for your mobile phone or fish pond – is helping to reduce your carbon footprint.