Our mission at SunJack is to supply readily accessible energy to everyone around the world, near or far, rich or poor, first or third world. We recently had the opportunity, and honor, to help supply solar power to refugee camps in Uganda through African Woman Rising (AWR), a non-profit organization that works to empower women affected by war with the tools to rise out of extreme poverty. Founded in 2006, AWR is rooted in the conviction that women should be active stakeholders in defining their own development strategies and builds on initiatives that the women themselves have started.
In Northern Uganda, there are over 1 million South Sudanese refugees spread throughout several camps, with women and children comprising approximately 80% of the refugee population. AWR has been working in this camp since 2017 and several of AWR’s staff are refugees themselves who live in the camp. Knowing most of the inhabitants will stay for many years (worldwide the average stay for a refugee in a camp is 17 years), AWR sought a long-term intervention to help refugees become food and financially secure. Though this is not an easy task, AWR has a great team in Uganda that is dedicated to make this happen. Many of their staff live in areas where there is no electricity and use SunJack solar panels to power phones and computers.
For their most recent trip, AWR visited the Palabek camp, which hosts over 60,000 refugees. AWR’s great team of community mobilizers worked with staff members in the Palabek Camp to support AWR’s Permagarden, Adult Literacy and MicroFinance programs. Matthew, a refugee staff member pictured above, began working as a community mobilizer in the Permagarden program in 2017. As a refugee himself, Matthew has a real understanding of the situation refugees face and their daily challenges.
Matthew and all the other AWR community mobilizers received 15 Watt Solar Chargers from SunJack. The solar panel allowed the staff members to charge their phones and tablets, allowing them to stay in contact with staff at the main office in town and perform their duties.
For more information, please visit www.africanwomenrising.org. You can learn more about AWR’s initiatives and donate to their cause. Photo credit: @brian_hodges.
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SunJack solar panels are compact and foldable, letting you easily take it with you everywhere you go. Also, SunJack solar panel is drop proof and weatherproof so it can go with you for all your outdoor activities and adventures. Oh the places you can go? Well, just about everywhere!
The first use most people think of for a durable portable solar panel is that it would be great for camping. SunJack is great for camping, particularly if you are off grid and need to power your cell phone or electronic devices. Most importantly, because SunJack is shock proof and weatherproof, it is also perfect for many other outdoor adventures like:
Solar panels like this aren’t just for rugged outdoorsy people. There are so many places where you don’t have access to an electrical outlet but may need to charge your phone, tablet, or other devices. Here are just a few situations where a foldable solar panel would come in handy:
People who work outdoors often struggle to keep their phones charged during the day, but SunJack provides a compact, weatherproof solar panel solution for their battery charging needs. It is great for people who are outside working at all types of jobs, such as:
We have all learned from current events that we should be prepared for the unexpected. You never know when the next disaster may strike. A portable solar panel is the ultimate survival tool that can keep you connected through any emergency. Whether you are in an area prone to hurricanes or you are dealing with power outages due to wildfire risks, our solar panel and battery packs can provide an ongoing, maintenance free emergency power supply to keep your phone and small device batteries charged no matter how long the electric grid is down. With SunJack, you will be prepped for anything from a long winter storm to the zombie apocalypse.
The most common device to charge with a portable solar power supply is a cell phone but it is capable of so much more. Almost any device that can charge from USB can be charged with our current model solar panels (the 15 Watt and 25 Watt portable panels):
Even on a cloudy day, the powerful solar panel will keep your devices running and with a compact battery pack, you can charge things up even after the sun goes down. Plus, you will have gained a new level of disaster preparedness just by having a portable solar panel and battery pack in your house or car.
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]]>Below is a non-exhaustive list of a few of the USB chargeable devices that our 15 Watt and 25 Watt solar panels can charge during your outdoor adventures:
Do you have something to charge that you don’t see on the list above? Not to worry, the list is far from complete. Our 15 and 25 watt foldable solar panels can charge almost anything that powers with a USB cable. If you want to know for sure, you just need to do some simple math. There, we said it. We realize most people are traumatized by the mere mention of the dreaded word “math” since their high school days. But don’t worry, it truly is a simple calculation or, in most instances, a comparison.
Watts! Yes, it all boils down to watts. Every device uses a certain number of watts and every solar panel produces a certain number of watts. As long as the solar panel produces enough watts necessary for the device you are charging, you are good to go.
Here is a simple example. A typical cell phone uses about 6 watts of power when it is on. Our 15 watt solar panel generates up to 15 watts of solar power when exposed to full sun. That is more than enough power to keep your phone charged and powered even if you are using it all day.
Say, for instance, the device requires more watts than the solar panel can generate. Not to worry – the solar panel can still power the device, just not at optimal levels.
Let’s do an example with a large device like a laptop. A typical 15” laptop will use about 65 watts when it is running. Our 25 watt portable solar panel produces up to 25 watts when exposed to full sun. While this cannot keep up with the power discharged from the laptop while in use, the 25 watt panel can extend the amount of time you are able to use your laptop. Let’s take a closer look.
You would normally start the day with your laptop battery fully charged. For this example, let’s say the battery holds enough energy to run the laptop for 5 hours with no charger attached. If you hook the laptop up to the portable 25 watt solar panel as soon as you turn it on, and the solar charger is in full sun, it should provide an extra 25 watts, which is approximately 38.5% of the required power (65 watts). In other words, you will gain an extra 38.5% of the total run time of 5 hours, or approximately an additional 2 hours of run time. Now your battery will last 7 hours instead of only 5 hours.
How Do You Use Your Devices? We just discussed using your portable solar panel to get 2 extra hours of life out of your laptop, but that is only occurs if you use the laptop all day.
If you are out camping, hunting, or fishing, you aren’t going to use your laptop all day. It is going to be sitting idle and plugged into the foldable solar charger all day and you are going to get back to camp at night and use it for 1 or 2 hours. With that scenario, the 25 watt solar panel will keep your laptop charged indefinitely and still produce enough extra energy to re-charge your cell phone that you carried with you all day.
Another consideration is if you are charging for work or for play. While one person may need to use their laptop to check building plans while on a construction site, another person might want to keep their iPad powered up for late night reading on a week-long camping trip. Your daily use and amount of continuous use of your devices plays an important role in the size of the charger needed.
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ETFE is short for Ethylene TetraFlouroEthylene. It is a high strength fluorine-based polymer that is used as a coating on our foldable solar panels. The ETFE molecule is made of hydrocarbons having a double covalent bond between two carbon atoms. Because it is a fluorinated polymer, most of the chemical bonds are Carbon-Fluoro which is one of the higher energy covalent bonds. These factors lead to a very stable molecule that is more durable than other polymers.
The strong chemical bonds within ETFE give solar panels the qualities that make it the best choice for rugged outdoor activities. ETFE is the ideal protective coating for solar panels for several reasons:
Many other brands of flexible and folding solar panels are made with PET coatings instead of ETFE. PET is a polyester-based plastic that is not very durable and is susceptible to corrosion. PET coated solar panels tend to discolor and crack. When exposed to UV for long periods of time, their layers often peel apart in a process called delamination. A solar panel has to be in sunlight to operate, so having one that degrades easily with sun exposure defeats the purpose.
The bottom line is that solar panels with PET coatings are often less expensive but will typically have half the life span of a solar panel with an ETFE polymer coating.
Here at SunJack we are committed to quality. We do not cut corners and do not simply sell you the cheapest solar panels. Do not be fooled by flashy graphics and clever marketing gimmicks used by many solar panel manufacturers. Whether you are participating in rugged outdoor adventures or just spending a day outside, you want a solar panel that won’t break if you drop it or be damaged if it starts to rain. If you want a compact, durable, weatherproof solar panel with a long life span, you need ETFE technology.
SunJack’s durable folding solar panels are perfect for any outdoor activity under the sun: camping, backpacking, hunting, hiking, bird watching, boating, float trips, kayaking, mountain climbing, mountain biking, working on a construction site, farming, landscaping, horseback riding, traveling, spending time at the park, site seeing, hanging out at the beach, relaxing at the swimming pool, jamming at a music festival, enjoying a theme park, animal watching at the zoo, emergency preparedness
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