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A portable solar panel earns its place once you're more than a night or two from a power point. Several panels here have no battery inside, so they only push power to your device while the sun is on them. Plenty of walkers charge a power bank from the panel by day, then the phone from the power bank at night. To carry battery and panel as one unit, look at a solar power bank.
Weight and folded size decide what leaves home with you. The outdoor panel weighs 300g and comes in black, blue camouflage or khaki. The lightweight model opens out to three panels yet folds small enough for the mesh pocket on a rucksack. The panel kit is heavier, in hard plastic that copes with knocks, with four or five panels to choose from. Lights and chargers sit in our torches and solar gear.
A fabric folding solar panel takes up little room and can hang off your pack while you walk. The portable charger in orange or black has reinforced seams and metal eyelets for tying it to a tent or a pack strap. The foldable panel, in black or camouflage, closes into quarters and opens out long. The hiking panel has monocrystalline cells and two USB ports, so a phone and a camera charge side by side. None of these is a solar blanket for running a camp fridge: they're sized for phones, GPS units and power banks.
Every panel works hardest in direct sun. Angle it at the sun and shift it as the shadows move, because trees and the tent fly cut the output. A lunch stop on an open ridge puts in more charge than a morning under the gums. Keep the phone or power bank in the shade behind the panel rather than cooking beside it.
Two items sit apart from the rest. The green solar charger is a rectangular unit with its own battery, handy if you only want one thing in the pack. The solar garden spotlight is for home: it pushes into the ground on a spike and tilts to aim the beam. For light on the track, pair your panel with a torch that charges over USB.
