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Green Gadgets: Tech, Renewable Energy & Batteries
Developments in personal renewable energy chargers for gadgets
Renewable energy chargers that are portable and not extraordinarily expensive are thankfully getting more commonplace. These make charging up your gadgets with sun and wind possible. While they don’t provide energy as cheaply as plugging into the wall when you factor in their purchase price, the energy used for your gadgets is at least clean and will, eventually, be free.
Portable wind-powered chargers
Right now, the only portable wind chargers readily available are the Hymini and Gotwind. These are fairly inexpensive and provide easy energy, especially when used in conjunction with bike riding. Solar chargers, on the other hand, are available in a wider variety of energy generation capabilities with different pricing that can fit many budgets.
Portable solar-powered chargers
The easiest charger to obtain is a solar charger because there is a wider selection. There are differences in solar chargers and what they’ll be able to provide to you in terms of power. Most solar chargers can easily handle gathering the energy needed for cell phones, music players, digital cameras and like gadgets. If you’re looking to charge your laptop, there is a slimmer selection but definitely still options. Charging more energy intensive gadgets than a laptop would make it more practical to look into a solar array for a home. But gadget-wise, you're pretty well covered with what is available on the market.
For an idea of what is available for laptops and smaller devices, you can check out our buy green guide for solar chargers, where we've done the footwork of finding the best of the best for you. But more and more, solar cells are being integrated into devices and options are expanding daily.
Better gadget batteries and fuel cell technology
While our ability to use the sun and wind to power our gadgets is increasing, so too is battery technology. Improvements are being made to batteries so they hold charges longer and maintain the ability to charge to capacity for longer. Additionally, alternative batteries are being created. These come in the form of ultracapacitors and fuel cells.
Ultracapacitors: The new battery?
Currently, ultracapacitors can only store a fraction of the energy of Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) batteries -- more on those from HowStuffWorks -- yet they can recharge in a fraction of the time and never lose their charging capacity. Scientists are working on the storage flaw of ultracapcitors, mainly through increasing the surface area of the electrodes and using better materials to store the charge. This could spell a major breakthrough in our ability to rapidly recharge our gadgets and reduce or eliminate our dependence on batteries. The other major issue to contend with is pricing – they are far more expensive than Li-Ion batteries.
Fuel cells
A second alternative to batteries that researchers are working on at a lightning pace is fuel cells for gadgets. Mobion is a company at the leading edge of this technology, and is working with Toshiba to create laptops, cell phones, GPS devices and other hand held gadgets that run on small fuel cells.
Fuel cells use methanol cartridges for energy. They hold their capacity for a charge far longer than Lithium Ion batteries, are highly efficient, and hold the potential for a power supply that never needs a cord.
The issue with this, of course, is that users will need replacement cartridges for methanol. The environmental impact of producing replacement cartridges isn't yet known because the technology isn't quite here yet, but it will be something to take into consideration as we find better and better alternatives to batteries.
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