With summers getting hotter, the weather getting brighter and photovoltaic cell technology improving at an exponential rate, many people who would not have considered solar panel installation in the past are making inquiries about how it can help reduce their energy bills.

One of the biggest questions is whether solar panel power alone can power workstations and common equipment someone who was working from home would use.

The simple answer to this is that you absolutely can, given that enough solar panels will power almost anything electrical. There are even cases of supercomputers that run entirely on solar power during the day.

So if you had a rooftop suite of solar panels that could provide a peak electrical output of four-kilowatt hours, you could easily run your work equipment using the power generated, as well as many appliances and electrical goods besides.

However, when people think of solar-powered computers, they tend to think of a portable generation system, similar to those used in caravans or to power smartphones whilst on the move.

Because computers can vary so considerably, answering this can be somewhat more complex.

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Why Can’t I Have An Integrated Solar Laptop?

Amazingly, some manufacturers, most notably Samsung, actually attempted to create a laptop that you could use and directly charge in sunlight, intended for use by people on a tight budget such as students.

These were not only prototypes but worked really effectively, providing an hour of charge from two hours of sunlight, but there were fundamental existential issues with the combination of laptop and solar power that made them worthless in practice. 

One issue is that laptop screens typically should not be used in direct sunlight, as it can make them exceptionally difficult, if not impossible to see and therefore use, but there is a much graver concern.

Laptops run exceptionally hot, as most people who use them for work in less-than-ergonomic ways can attest to, and given that most laptops use lithium-ion batteries, which can fail at high temperatures and either catch fire or explode, leaving them baking in the midday sun is not the best option.

There might be ways to fix this, but given that a lot of computer manufacturers are focused on heat dissipation, adding solar panels which inherently absorb light and heat to convert into electricity could be counterproductive.

With that said, there are plenty of alternative options for charging a computer with solar panels.

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What Are My Options?

As noted above, if you have rooftop solar panels, then they are already serving a proportion of your electricity needs and therefore would also help power and charge your computer.

As well as this, some electricity providers use green energy sources such as wind, tidal and indeed solar power, so that can be an option if installing a roof panel is not an option.

Alternatively, there are a lot of portable solar chargers available but be sure to check your power requirements before you buy one, as a laptop typically uses and requires a lot more electricity than a mobile phone or tablet, so viable alternatives can quickly become very expensive.

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