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Power mobile devices with a hand crank or solar charger
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A must-have for outdoor adventurers, harried business travelers, and gadget-loving hipsters, a portable renewable energy source allows users to power up mobile devices, laptop, MP3 players, GPS–almost any portable electronic device–without plugging into a wall outlet. Today, these power sources primarily include solar power and, to a lesser extent, mechanical (hand crank) power.
Find it! Renewable energy chargers
A solar or hand crank charger will juice up your gadgets in the cleanest way possible: with no harmful byproducts or environmental threats. For green gadgets galore head to Earth Tech Products.
Better Energy Systems Solio Universal Hybrid Charger
This eye-catching and innovative solar charger is available in black, white, silver, and pink. The Solio can power up virtually any handheld electronic device, from digital cameras to cell phones.Brunton Solar Port 4.4 with BattJack Battery Charger
The Brunton SolarPort 4.4 Charger produces enough power to charge small electronics such as cell phones, GPS units, digital cameras and others through a USB cord, and includes the BattJack battery charger to give life to rechargeable batteries.Brunton SolarRoll
This nifty and easy-to-carry solar energy source from Brunton is ideal for charging electronic devices while on outdoor adventures. Available in different sizes and wattages, the SolarRoll comes with a one-year warranty and is waterproof and UV transparent.Eclipse Solar Gear
Eclipse offers a full line of solar charging carrying cases including backpacks, camera bags, bike bags, tackle bags, and messenger bags geared toward energy-conscious urbanites and in-need-of-a-charge outdoor adventurers.Reware Juice Bags
The line of Reware Juice Bags—including a solar beach tote—harness renewable energy via built-in solar panels. The bag itself is made from fabric crafted from recycled soda bottles. Reware also offers a line of organic cotton T-shirts with an eco-edge and accessories.SCOTTEVEST SeV Evolution Jacket
Fortune magazine pretty much sums it up with this description of the SeV Evolution Jacket: "Imagine Giorgio Armani and Bill Gates stranded on a desert island..." Aside from numerous pockets, this piece of gadget-friendly outerwear features a PAN (personal area network) wire conduit system.SideWinder Charger
Small and light, the SideWinder is ideal for emergency situations when a normal cell phone or PDA charger is unavailable (hard to fathom, we know). The device also features a battery-free LED light that can be powered for five minutes after only 30 seconds of charging.Silicon Solar iSol Plus
This innovative charger from Silicon Solar is for juicing cellular devices, MP3 players, and other small electronics. It can harness solar power or be charged using a computer's USB port.Solar Style SC003 Solar Charger
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine...This compact yet powerful device from Solar Style charges cell phones, MP3 players, and other portable devices using the power of the sun. The SC003 comes equipped with four cell phone connectors, an AC charger, and a car adapter.Sunlinq 6.5 Watt Foldable Solar Battery Charger
This flexible, foldable, and durable portable solar panel produces enough power from the sun to charge rechargeable batteries, flash lights, cell phones, GPS units, MP3 players and more, through a cigarette lighter and other adapters.Voltaic Backpack
This attractive yet heavy duty backpack with built-in solar panels features plenty of pockets and wire channels for storing/charging personal electronic devices such as cameras, cell phones, MP3 players, and PDAs. Perfect for trekking through the city or frolicking in the great outdoors.
Buying a hand crank or solar charger for your mobile devices helps you go green because...
- Only 5 percent of the power consumed by standard wall chargers is actually used to charge a cell phone.[1]
- Each year, the earth receives 6,000 times the amount of energy from the sun that people actually consume.[2]
Portable electronics are rapidly replacing those that run solely off a wall outlet: cell phones are replacing landlines, more than 20 percent of all computer sales are laptops, digital cameras are pushing out film-based cameras, and PDAs are winning out over increasingly archaic paper organizers.[3] A typical US household uses between five to 10 adapters, and each year, more than 1 billion new adapters are shipped worldwide.[4]
Cell phones charging through a wall outlet are highly inefficient as 10 to 16 times more energy is often drawn from the outlet than can be retrieved by the batteries.[3] If everyone in the US unplugged their charger or used a more energy-efficient or renewably-powered charger, we could save 4.5 billion kWh of electricity use, 3 million tons of carbon dioxide from power plant emissions, and $380 million in end user electricity usage per year.[3]
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