Why You Can’t Buy A Solar-Powered Cellphone… For Now

January 6th, 2012 by Ravinder Casley Gera

Cellphones. We all (well, most of us) have one, and we all charge them frequently. In fact, modern smartphones are so power-greedy many of us charge them every night. All this sucks up domestic (and sometimes, if we’re being cheeky, office) power.

But my calculator doesn’t need external power — it’s solar. Why can’t my cellphone be?

Nobody knows as well as Nokia. The Finnish phone giant has just completed an extensive trial of solar-powered phones to see whether the technology could be brought to consumers. The verdict? Probably not — at least, not yet.

Nokia put together a prototype solar-powered phone, with a panel integrated into the back of the case. It gave the phone to testers all over the world to see how successfully the phone functioned in different environments.

The result? Don’t expect a solar-powered iPhone any time soon. As Nokia explains,

When carefully positioned, the prototype phones were able, at best, to harvest enough energy to keep the phone on standby mode but with a very restricted amount of talk time. This means there’s still some way to go before a workable and care-free solution is achieved.

Smaller non-smartphones use the least power, but their small size means they can also generate less.

The most substantial challenge is the limited size of a phone’s back cover, which restricts the extent to which the battery can be charged. What’s more, to ensure mobility, it is essential that the phone’s weather protection doesn’t cover the solar charging panel.

Of course, where you are in the world does make a difference. Nokia’s tester in Kenya, a security guard named Amos, got the best amount of solar charge — not just because the sun shines long and hard in Kenya, but because his job meant he didn’t move around much. In the Artic Circle, on the other hand, there’s plenty of sun, but it’s low in the sky and you’re as likely to be in shadow as in sunshine at any moment.

Of course, a phone which didn’t need to be charged quite as often because of a built-in solar panel would be almost as useful as a phone which didn’t need to be charged at all. But from the sounds of Nokia’s fairly downbeat assessment, we’re not going to be relying on the sun for our smartphones any time soon. For now, those of us determined to go solar will have to make do with a bulky solar-charging iPhone case.

Source: Nokia Conversations | Via: The Verge | More: Nokia Solar Charging | Picture: Nokia

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Tags: cellphone, consumer gadgets, green gadgets, Nokia, solar charging, solar powered cellphone

About the Author

Ravinder Casley Gera is a London-based freelance journalist passionate about climate change, development and technology. He has written for the Daily Express, Excite.co.uk, and the Fly. He blogs at ravcasleygera.wordpress.com.

Indian

How useful it could be for people struck in natural calamities, such as recent weeks long flooding in India and elsewhere. People were not able to contact each other due to cell phones went dead when their homes were destroyed.
Solar charging phones would have still worked.
George Ralph

Focking liars. They can power a cell phone using solar. Battery companies are in conspiracy.
- Harris Naseem
  
  I agree, they are doing this to keep production of newer phones going longer and faster in order to make more $$ why else wouldn’t they make it mass, BTW Samsung Blue note is now sold in Northern Europe and SE Asia, guess they want to leach North America before they release these awesome phones!!!
Ian

Stop being so power greedy. And consumers shall demand it and not buy shitty products that are full of bloatware and wasteful components. Less is always more.
- Bob_Wallace
  
  Parachutes?
jackedofthegrid

This must be sponsored by Nokia or something, there are other phone companies that have achieved this with smart phones for example the Samsung Blue Earth which was produced back in 2009 but no matter where I try to acquire this phone, evidently not available neither on an American market neither on an European one either, they have a panel built into the back with all the handy gadgetry of a smart phone plus the smallest yet SAR level to record.
james braselton

hi there nokia changed there mind becuase new report is there releasing a solar powered nokia 1525 wich has a 6 inch screen thats the solar powered nokia 1520 its the 1520 with a sower panel on the back
Skraghu9

Something is better than nothing Put a bigger solar pannel
S K Raghu