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Buy a solar battery charger

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By buying a solar battery charger you’re reducing the amount of batteries going in the waste stream and using the sun to charge them rather than emission-causing electricity.

Find it! Solar battery chargers

Solar cells are made of semiconducting materials similar to those found in computer chips. Photovoltaic (PV) devices are basically “electric glass” but technological advances now have made possible thin film solar cells with layers only a few micrometers thick.

There are a variety of solar battery chargers available usually through electronics stores or online at specialty battery or solar websites. Many offer versatility that allows them to charge household rechargeable batteries as well as small electronic devices such as cell phones, iPods, GPS units, PDAs, digital cameras, CD players, and MP3 players.

Before you buy

Solar charges can take longer than plug-in chargers to re-power your batteries, sometimes up to a day or more. Having an extra set of batteries so that one can be charged while the other is in use helps address this issue.

Buying solar battery chargers helps you go green because...

  • The only power you need is the sun so you’ll help to reduce air pollutants and greenhouse gases generated by traditional power grid sources.
  • Battery chargers, solar or plug in, juice up rechargeable batteries which can be used over and over again, cutting back on battery disposal and its toxic wastes.

More than 350 million rechargeable batteries are purchased each year and although that’s less than five percent of all battery sales, rechargeables are considered among the quickest growing segments. Rechargeables certainly cut back on toxic waste since they go through hundreds of power cycles each (compared to only one from a single-use battery), yet juicing them poses another environmental problem. Conventional power plants, like coal and nuclear facilities common throughout the country, come with another set of eco-concerns. Solar chargers (equipped with minature photovoltaics), on the other hand, convert sunlight directly into electricity making them a clean, renewable source of energy for your on-the-go power needs.

The earth receives 6,000 times the amount of energy from the sun that people actually consume each year.[1] A National Renewable Energy Laboratory study found that a rooftop PV system handling half of a typical household’s electrical needs would circumvent conventional electrical plant emissions of more than half a ton of sulfur dioxide, one-third a ton of nitrogen oxides, and 100 tons of carbon dioxide over its projected 28-year life.[2] While a solar battery charger offsets only a fraction of these pollutants, it certainly is the greenest portable power option around.

Glossary

  • photovoltaic device (PV): A PV device generates electricity from sunlight through a naturally occurring electronic process. In some materials, sunlight frees electrons in certain crystals and sends them through an electric circuit, which allows them to power an electronic device.

External links

Footnotes

  1. Wired - Reality Check: The Future of Solar Energy
  2. National Renewable Energy Laboratory - Energy Payback: Clean Energy from PV