I need a solar panel for my laptop as i am going camping in the desert, and i need my laptop. There are two choices of solar panels, One is 0 watts and 2 V and maximum power current 0.56 amps. The other one is 2 watts, 2 V and no mention of current. My laptop plug says input 00-240V and .5A and then output 5V-5A. Which one should i get for my laptop. If there are other choices please tell me ill look them up on OKorder.Thanks
I'm afraid neither of these panels will do much for charging or running your laptop. If the power brick is supposed to emit 5 volts at 5 amps, that's 75 watts. Neither of those panels provides enough voltage and the power output is obviously far too small. The capabilities of solar power are vastly overestimated for small panels. Sunlight is limited to about kilowatt per square meter under ideal conditions (summer time, clear blue sky, for a few hours around noon in the US southwest). But consumer panels top out at about 5% efficiency, so your limit is 50 watts per square meter - in other words you would need about half a square meter, or about six square feet, of panel to provide 75 watts. And even under ideal conditions you will only get that much for a few hours each day. Also, the panel's voltage output is not regulated, so even if you find a panel that emits 5 volts (this would actually have to be made up of groups of 30 cells in series, as they emit half a volt each at most) you can't just connect the panel output into your laptop's DC in. You'd need a regulated DC-to-DC supply, and since that is not 00% efficient it will cost a bit of the power... now you need even more panel area. All in all, not really a practical thing to carry along on a camping trip.
