Solar panel backpacks are a great way to keep your electronics charged, whether you are out and about around town, on a hike, or perhaps coping with the electricity being off.  The backpacks vary in how much space they have for holding things and in what they are capable of charging. For example, a laptop will require a much larger solar panel (and more sunshine) than a cellphone, digital camera, or GPS device. The more solar power you require, the heavier the batteries are likely to be, but they will also give you more power after the sun goes down.

On cloudy days, or if you are in shady places, you will get less of a charge but still some. If you are sitting outside, be sure to position the panels so they are facing the sun as directly as possible. You want to take advantage of all the power you can get! Also, solar panels can take the rain, but batteries usually can’t, so be sure the batteries won’t get wet in a downpour, or add a plastic bag tucked around them.

I would have guessed that solar charging backpacks would be more used by long-distance hikers but from my reading, they evidently are more used by people who want to keep their grid power consumption down while going about their daily business, perhaps riding a bike across town or walking around.  They are used all over the world. Of course, they carry all the usual things you would put in a backpack, though if they have batteries, the space is partly taken up by those. Some of the backpacks’ specs will say that they have hydration. This provides you with drinking water, but also cuts down on the space available for other things.

Small electronic devices can vary in their power requirements for recharging.  So you need to carefully study what the manufacturers actually say about what can be charged with the backpack you are considering. Particularly if you want to charge your laptop, it isn’t just a matter of buying a heavier-duty solar panel setup. You do also need to do a bit of homework before making a purchase, to see whether your brand and model of laptop is compatible with the solar gear you are thinking of. A quick google search should take care of your questions.

Three Popular Solar Panel Backpacks

What About a Voltaic Solar Backpack?

Voltaics are one of the best-known brands. I read on the Voltaic Systems website that they were the first company to create a solar backpack, and that this happened after their founder had a drained cellphone while traveling in Europe. The same page also describes how they conserve resources and they comment “we believe we’re creating a large number of street-level ambassadors for solar energy.” Now that’s a reason to use a solar panel backpack that hadn’t crossed my mind.  I could chat about the benefits of using solar energy whenever we can. Another part of their site that I enjoyed was their blog, where I read articles about how their solar backpacks and small chargers are being used all over the world and in remote spots. By the time I had finished poking around on their site, I wanted a Voltaic systems solar backpack!

So onward to Amazon to do more research. Here is what I found: Voltaic offers three solar backpacks, increasing in features, capacity, and price, as you go left to right. Clicking on the images takes you to Amazon where you can read specs and reviews. The first one on the left is a daypack and the other two are larger backpacks.

The company also offers a number of portable solar panels and you can see all the Voltaic System products at Amazon on on this one page.

Solar Backpacks Reviews

With these devices that you depend on, the quality of the solar panels, batteries, and the backpacks themselves is important, as are the warranties offered. As I did quite a lot of research for this article, it turned out that the Amazon customer reviews were the most forthright and useful. There was one addition to this, a review page I liked.If I get one myself for around town, I’d get the Voltaic daypack, the one on the left above.

Photo of woman with solar panel backpack by Richard Masoner / Cyclelicious