Solar cells are finally pretty much where you can buy them and wire them up to battery and get some useful long life performance out of a remote electronic device. Of course, you generally need at a minimum a blocking diode (to keep the reverse-leakage to a minimum during the night), but for the most part, you can now select a solar-cell just above the voltage you need to charge a lead-acid battery with and you’ve got a basic remote-power station! (Yes, there’s factors to consider, like power load, overnight operation, discharge limit, power-point tracking…see? There’s a bunch more parameters to consider!)

These smaller units would be suitable for recharging AA & AAA NiMH cells and the like.

This particular model features:

• • 90x60mm (3.5×2.4″)

• • 6V nominal output voltage

• • 100mA nominal output current

Keep in mind these are the manufacturer’s numbers, which seem optimistic. We’d suggest reading these numbers as open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current, which is not the best way to measure a solar cell’s performance. Sorry, we presently do not have better specifications & measurements for these cells, but we will once the sun is high and bright in the sky in the summertime. Any vendor that does not have a V/I (voltage vs current) curve for their solar cell is not giving you the full picture. Otherwise, expect approximately 1/2 the power!