I read a couple of issues of Meidän Mökki magazine on our summer cabin trip. An article about solar and wind electric power solutions caught my eye. There is a company called Sunwind in Finland that seems to be the most well known distributor and authority on eco-friendly electricity solutions for summer cabins, sail boats etc.

I’ve been more interested in portable power systems and decided to check if there is anything new happening on that front. Io and behold, the prototype “solar power backpacks” have become actual products since I last looked. Voltaic is making a well thought out package that actually works with low-power devices such as cell phones and mp3 players. O’Neill Europe is making a similar pack with such goodies as built in bluetooth and ipod remote control.

Solio has also generated a lot of buzz with their tiny solar charger device that also contains a built-in battery.

For emergency use, a device called Sidewinder provides you with enough power to make a cell phone call as long as you can wind the little crank.

Another idea I have fondled in the past is to build a hub dynamo based laptop charger on my bike. It would involve too advanced engineering for me, so I’ve buried the project for the time being.

Since Finland is full of timber, one solution for independent power on hiking or cycling trips could be a telluride bismuth based thermo electricity generator. It could be fed with heat from a campfire and slowly turn it into electricity. There have been some field tests in Sweden with technology like that, but it will probably not see daylight as a commercial product for a long, long time.

Posted by api in Outdoor pursuits, Wonders of technology