By David Ponce
The thing about windows is that they’re meant to let light through. It’s kind of their point. Solar chargers, then, would seem like a natural mate for them and Brandon Craven’s design brings the two together elegantly. Window and charger, living in harmony. Or maybe the window would consider the charger a parasite… who knows? In any case, all he’s done is add a suction cup to a regular solar charger… but sometimes that’s really all you need. A suction cup. Add it to everyday objects and see what happens.
In all fairness, Brandon’s product looks interesting. It charges via USB, has integrated batteries that will store energy even when not actively connected to a device, and a kickstand allows it to point at the sun even when no windows are around. The only issue is that the product is not yet real. It’s in its fundraising phase on social funding site Quirky. It costs $39 and there needs to be 2,000 sold before production kicks in. As of this writing, there are 708 commitments.
[ Product Page ] VIA [ Gizmag ]
Gimme a breakdown showing at what point the money I save on energy by not plugging my charger into the wall is more than the cost of the product and I’ll take a look. Then I’ll ask you to show me the environmental impact of making the device versus using the existing infrastructure – that’s the real test. Many of these charger/battery combinations have an environmental hole incumbent upon their manufacture that would take decades to recover through electricity savings. Obviously I don’t know if this is the case for this particular device, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was.