The Solar Powered Calculator Was Just The Beginning

The Solar Powered Calculator Was Just The Beginning

The first solar powered calculator was released in 1976 by Sharp. Catchily named the EL-8026 this sustainable office equipment trailblazer featured solar panels on the back of the calculator and was considerably less efficient or indeed practical than the solar calculators we're accustomed to today. Although cumbersome, expensive and prone to power-outage on cloudy days or at night - the EL-8026 opened the door to a huge host of sunshine fuelled devices and new applications for photovoltaics (solar panels or solar cells to you and I).Sticking with the pocket sized end of the solar powered spectrum there are now an abundance of items which allow you to harness the power of sunlight to charge small electronic devices including mobile phones, PDAs and even netbooks and laptops. A modern portable solar charger is able to convert natural light (not necessarily just direct blazing sunlight) into usable battery charge. Developments in photovoltaic technology allow you to fully charge a spent phone battery in a couple of hours- even if it's overcast outside. As well as being incredible useful whilst camping or caught without access to mains electricity, portable solar chargers save on the cost of using electricity from the grid and are entirely without carbon consequence for each new charge.When this concept and principle are scaled up, so are the benefits. A decent sized home solar panel installation allows you to reap the positives of the portable charger on a considerably grander scale and with a significant positive impact on your finances. An average sized domestic solar panel system is capable of producing around 1400kWh/year. To put this into context, a standard laptop computer used for 10 hours a day, 365 days a year will generally use less than 200kWh/year - allowing those who work from home to genuinely boast of carbon neutrality...and of course benefit from energy overheads in and around the zero mark. Courtesy of the UK government's Feed in Tariff scheme, those who opt to have domestic solar panels fitted to their home will also receive money for every unit of electricity they produce (whether they use it or not) - ultimately resulting in a net profit on the outlay for the solar panels in a short period of time.The cost-effective scalability of solar power extends far beyond even the realms of roof fitted domestic systems. In 2007 internet giant Google invested in one of the largest solar panel installations in the United States. Later in that year they released some statistics showing just how much power their solar panels were producing on average per day. The fascinating results showed that per day they generated enough energy through photovoltaics to run a flat screen television for 5366 hours or perform 402 dishwasher cycles.So whether you're simply in the market for a new calculator, looking to make a modest investment or brainstorming on how to power a vast office complex don't neglect the solar power option!

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