We recently read a report by the GSMA that lays out the economics for solar charging phones in developing countries. In one field study in Kenya, they found that phone users spend about $0.25 cents to charge a phone and up to $3.00 a month. Compare this to the US where we pay, on average, about 12 cents a kilowatt hour. Even with an assumption that a lot of power wasted in charging your phone (lets say 5X the battery capacity), we’re paying less than a half of a penny to charge our big battery smartphones. So while we may have reason to complain about high-cost data plans, running our phones is extremely cheap (assuming your charger isn’t drawing vampire power).
The argument for using a solar charger in the United States and other developed countries is often convenience. Our devices run out of power when we’re traveling or otherwise not near a power outlet. In developing countries, it is clear that there are real economic incentives for both individuals or groups (less money paid on charging) and for phone operators (more minutes used by customers) to use solar chargers.
Our main concern is that as solar charger manufacturers try to drive the cost down to be accessible for folks living on a few dollars a day, they build such a cheap charger that it either doesn’t work satisfactorily (long charge times) or stops working because of bad quality solar cells, batteries or construction. This has the potential to convince a lot of people that solar products don’t work when they can, in fact, work amazingly well.
I have a mobile charger but it came without instructions and i never got answers from the supplier on how to use it even though i tried to contact them several times. This kind of product support brings an otherwise good idea (we go camping a lot) into the category of “cheap and nasty” toys or Bought to Brake.
Chargers that don’t work are frustrating. Let us know if we can help in any way.