Solar Powered Laptop

My idea of a solar powered laptop.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• solar
• powered
• laptop
• energy
• future
• wish
• idea
• technology
• computers
• power

[nanogirl]

You would not need the sunlight to be on the actual screen to power it.

[macshacker12]

funny that 30 yr old calculators have all solar but a laptop doen't

[nanogirl]

So true!

[MrBurstingfoam]

Good thinking but it's not a new idea, it has crossed the mind of about every geek on the planet at some point.

The reason you haven't seen it is because it's not practical. While its powered on yr panel will be angled downwards & that size panel isn't going to give you much charge e.g. turned off and left out in sun all day = ~20 mins of facebook?

Think of the light and heat a laptop must emit. I don't think lid panels will ever live power a modern laptop although they could trickle charge it

[nanogirl]

We are getting closer with these newly released solar powered batteries! It's very exciting!

[kenzeus]

Sadly solar energy is still premature(They working on finding a new material that can better capture energy in the solar panels).Also I always use laptops in the dark It's hard too see the screen with so much sunlight and you are not supposed to leave a laptop in the sunlight that will damage it.

What would be interesting is a wireless powered laptop.If only Nikola Tesla vision of the future would come true....

[m3harri]

Good idea but lots of engineering issues. As things are the heat from a panel would fry any LCD or OLEDs that are out there now. Heat is a big issue with computing on many levels.

The power output of solar cells is also very low. You might reduce the requirements of a laptop and make it work but if would require some comprises. Not back lighting, using solid state hard drives, reducing graphic needs by reversing the screen (white on black), etc.

[m3harri]

@macshacker12 Calculators do not use near the power of a laptop. The processor on a calc could be less than 1Mhz and it is single purpose. Calculations small memory. They have no harddrive, or large 65 million color displays.

[m3harri]

Calculators do not use near the power of a laptop. The processor on a calc could be less than 1Mhz and it is single purpose. Calculations small memory. They have no harddrive, or large 65 million color displays.

[mydogisdead414]

I think it wont power the laptop but trickle charge the battery with a typical 15" screen

a solar panel a metre square is a better prospect, at a possible 12v 2.2amps

[waqasahmed939]

Another issue also is obviously heat. Laptops do get hot, yes and manufacturers are looking for ways to make them cooler, for better efficiency meaning better battery life etc...

The next big thing will probably be solar and hopefully manufacturers have cooled their laptops down enough

There is also the Sahara solar project, under going right now, which seems interesting

[waqasahmed939]

This idea of yours is not just seperate to yourself, however others, including me(as a PC seller) have thought of such a thing

As gov'ts around the world become greener, such technology will eventually be inevitable

At the moment, the problem is that the panels wont generate much power-though netbooks could lead the way, and the fact that you would probably need a netbook inside a widescreen laptop if you get my gist-ie all the parts in a laptop to fit all the panels. This is still very costly

[ArtyFart]

Sounds a bit ditzy witzy, the panel would have to be about the size of about five or more of those laptop screens to power it from the Sun,

and the heat from the panel could not dissipate without air space behind it, the laptop would eventually be damaged from heat.

[r4nd0mn4me]

It is a good idea, but as you can see in my video, the panel gets a little on the large side.