Best Portable Solar Panels and Solar Battery Chargers

The answer all comes down to wattage. Portable solar devices range widely in the amount of power they can produce, which is largely a function of panel size. Bigger tends to mean more powerful in the world of solar.

The most compact and lightweight solar battery chargers typically produce somewhere between 15 and 50 watts of max power. Devices in this wattage range are best suited for charging personal electronic devices, like cell phones, Bluetooth speakers, smartwatches, and GPS devices, or small external power banks that you could use to top off a phone. These devices may be a good fit for a backpacker or hiker, but not for a power outage at home.

Portable solar panels with a higher power output—like 100, 200, or even 400 watts of max power—are also available. These products tend to be heavier and bulkier, so they aren’t a good fit for hikers. But they work well at a tent or an RV campsite, during a tailgate, or on a boat. They can also be useful at home during a power outage, when used to add juice to a portable power station. Those large batteries can handle the higher output from the panel, store that energy, and then use it to power whatever device or appliance you plug into it. Many higher-power panels can be daisy-chained together for higher outputs.

A final note on wattage: The wattage listed by the manufacturer is the maximum under ideal conditions—but don’t expect those conditions. Factors, including cloud cover and the angle of the sun can substantially impact power output. It’s not uncommon to get only half of the wattage listed by the manufacturer, so it may be useful to buy a more powerful device to compensate.