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Originally Posted by JG in SB
Wow, you must be seriously into "green" technology if you are concerned about the incremental difference it might make to charge your Blackberry using solar power!!
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Yes, I am. And I also invest in many socially responsible and green mutual funds to boot, as well as spending my dollars with companies who I find to not impact my environment as much as possible. While I can't be the best out there (I do used prepackaged things, etc.) I try and reduce impact in every way I can, if I had my choice I'd mount a huge wind turbine on my roof.
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a) I suspect that it takes more energy and resources to manufacture the solar charger, produce and deliver the packaging materials to the manufacturer, and ship one of these solar chargers to you then you are likely to ever save by charging a BlackBerry with it.
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Definitely a possibility, but you only suspect -- I too worry about the same tradeoffs. A problem though is that without anyone to actually try and harness/use the power of hydro, wind and solar tech, we'll be dependant on fossil fuels for the rest of time. A study in economics will help reveal that while the first adopters of a tech are the ones who find it's actually more wasteful, once something is proven and it reaches the economics of scale it can be refined to produce more efficiently, less wasteful and hopefully with less impact overall.
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because you don't intend to use the two previous solar products you purchased.
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I never stated that; I have one of them at work and one at home, and they have several power adapter tips. While insufficient to charge a higher-need device like a S60 (Nokia/Symbian) or BlackBerry, they actually can charge other minor things that have much lower power requirements. So while not useful for my desired purpose, they are not thrown away or ignored.
Just for knowledge, one of them can just about charge a Nokia 6682 to 75% of capacity. It can fully charge a RAZR. It's just highly inefficient even having been reviewed as a good device, which makes me sad.
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Here's my suggestion for the simplest solution: if you drive a car (I suspect you own a Prius, but even a regular gas-powered car will do just fine), charge your BlackBerry using your cigarette lighter charger while you are in the car. You are already generating the electricity so you might as well get the extra "bang-for-the-buck" and charge your BlackBerry while you are at it. Then you will be accomplishing another task with resources that you already have to use anyway. Of course, if you are so into "green" philosophy that driving a car would be sacrosanct to you, and you only take public transportation, then this strategy may not be feasible for you. But for some reason, I suspect that you do drive a car ;).
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You suspect completely wrong. I do not own a car, have not for years -- I own a motorcycle which I don't ride that much, a bicycle and I take public transportation to work on a daily basis as well as for everything else. Your entire statement above makes a presumption based on facts not in evidence.
From what I understand only 8% of the entire world drives cars, and of course those are from the "first world" countries. 98% of the US uses non-renewable energy(1) which is something that has to change; I for one am trying to help be the answer and solution, not the cause. The United states is the worst offender in the entire world(2), and this has to change. I do applaud you for being an Environmental Studies graduate, but in real life you have to get off your a** and be the one who promotes and makes changes.
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A more extravagant option, but one that would actually have a substantial impact in reducing your use of non-renewable resources, would be to add photovoltaic panels to your house, and then just go ahead and use the BlackBerry wall charger in one of your standard electrical outlets.
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I would love to! Alas dear compatriate, I rent here in SF -- as a single working guy I cannot even afford to own a unit in the building I live, the prices start at over $600,000 but are more frequently $750,000 for condos and around $1.2mil for an actual house. Some day when I own my own house (a guy can dream!) it will be solar panel'd out as much as I possibly can.
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As an outside observer, it just seems like inefficient use of your time and the world's energy, to prolong a quest for the perfect solar BlackBerry charger in order to try to implement a "green" philosophy. Especially when the ultimate impact will be insignificant, and in all likelihood, you are using more non-renewable resources trying to acquire this novelty solar charging device than you will ever save by putting it into use.
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That study is yet to be seen (and probably tough to do), but you know what? Someone has to try and make it happen. We're ignoring the case of having portable power (I am not a huge backpacker so can't really make this case, but it is a good one). By your statement above a car like the Prius would never exist; the inability to try something new and get away from fossil fuels is worth investigating. Initially it may be more wasteful but in the long run it will pay off! (well, if we can get mass-market to adopt at least)
The Prius unfortunately has eclipsed many other non-fossil vehicles that have come before it and done a better job, there's still the issue of the environmental impact of when those batteries reach their end of life. I'm honestly not in support of that, I think that we can do a lot better (and have); even biodiesel has a less overall impact, but at lease the Prius has brought to the mainstream the *idea* that it's ok to be green.
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Just my two cents. I hope you don't take this the wrong way.
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Oh not at all, I like intelligent discourse, it's what makes the world go 'round.
And I hope you don't take the above responses the wrong way either.
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(1)
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006...ty.php#numbers
(2)
http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/f101.asp#7
Solar Style SC002 - any good? anyone tried?
I'm looking for buy a solar charger and it'd be nice to know which one NOT to buy 
