thinking of getting a portable solar panel laptop charger...may be a stupid question but may be a very intelligent one as well ;)
small solar panels will produce some electricity under artificial light, but not nearly as much as in sunlight. Is that enough to charge your laptop? probably not, but you would have to try it to be certain. Of course you would have to orient it to get the maximum light, and that may not be possible in the tight confines of an airline seat. don't forget they dim the lights at night. Bottom line, won't work. Some aircraft have a connector to allow you to power (and charge) your laptop. It you have that, you need to get the right cable. .
First of all solar panels increase the mass of the plane and afeect its aerodynamicity. U cant use them at night. U cant use them when the whether is cloudy or its raining. To obtain the power required lift a plane it would need lots of solar panels which would make the flight more expensive. Why would people go on a more expensive ride when they can get a cheaper one.
As long as the solar panel has access to light it will operate. If you can keep it in the sunlight it will work a lot better than off the internal lights on the plane. Depending on the plane/lighting/your position, there might not be enough ambient light available for the solar panels to run your laptop.
Depends on the efficiency of your solar panel, but it is highly unlikely that the light in an airplane is enough to do much. I'm not discouraging the solar panel altogether. It just isn't an indoors especially if it is dim on the plane. Most that I've been on turn off the lights and then leave it to the individual to turn on the single over head reading light.
If you intend to use your panels inside a plane, answer is: solar panel intended for indoors use would most likely work inside a plane without problems. If you intend to mount your panel outside a plane :) it would actually work better than on the ground - there is more light at high altitudes and above clouds than it is on the ground. I'm not sure what portable in this case means - how big or how small is your panel? Solar panels are known for their low efficiency, so high-power solar panels are too big and too heavy to be used in aeroplanes.
