Portable, Durable Solar Chargers from Japan
SolarFold and SolarFan are two new solar cell chargers offered by a company called AmbienTec. The Japanese company has differentiated themselves from other manufacturers by emphasizing portability and durability in their chargers. Apparently, the photovoltaic cells AmbienTec uses are spherical in shape, as opposed to the majority of other cells used in solar cell panels. This makes them slightly flexible, which is a good selling point if you are trying to get people to use these while they're on the move. In addition, both products fold up to take less space, making them even more attractive for say, people who want to throw them in a backpack and go hiking or camping. Each cell uses 1,900 spherical cells to charge devices at 2 Watts via a USB connection. To put that in perspective, a 10 minute charge time would allow an iPhone to make a 3 minute call. They're priced at ¥22,050, which equates to $243.99. DigInfo featured a video of the CEO of AmbienTec explaining the products at the PV Expo 2010. Beware the monotonous digitized female voice if you do choose to watch, however.
