Solar Survival Adventure Map Download
Kenneth Calimlim
A simple yet powerful FIRECARD firelighter. The rays focus through the lens and form a precise focal point: ignition is instantaneous. Ideal for starting campfires, barbecues and solar pyrography! Water and wind resistant. You can even create pyrogravures on wood or leather.
Looking for the best solar charger for travel, remote work, or powering your backcountry adventures? Our gear experts have been testing solar panels for well over a decade. We've tested well over 100 different solar chargers to help you find the best panel for your next adventure. A solar panel can keep the devices you rely on charged when you're deep in the backcountry, whether that's camping, boondocking, backpacking, or traveling. We put each of these chargers through their paces in a myriad of locations and conditions. We hit the trails with them on backpacking trips, used them when car camping and working remotely, charged our cell phones on overnight adventures, and brought them with us while traveling by car, van, truck, train, and airplane. Whether you're looking for the best solar panel for travel, work, or play, we've compiled this list of the best options for each type of charger.
The Jackery SolarSaga 100 once again is our favorite high-wattage solar charger. This lightweight panel is more affordable than most 100-watt solar panels and also performs as well as the best of them. It's user-friendly and effective in full and partial sunlight. If it's a sunny day, this panel charges your devices quickly, and it works well on cloudy days as well. When it's time to pack up camp, the SolarSaga quickly folds flat and weighs just over 10 pounds. The low weight and simple fold-in-half design make it easy to load into your car, so it's always ready for your next adventure. It has tons of useful features that make it portable and exceptionally useful, including a built-in handle that makes it easy to carry. The legs fold out easily and quickly. With a USB-A, USB-C, and a DC output, you can plug this directly into your solar power station or power any of your devices straight from the panel. The DC charging cable is hardwired into the panel and stowed into a zipper pocket along with the USB charging ports. This solar panel impressed us in every way, making it an excellent addition to any off-grid solar setup.
While the SolarSaga 100 is relatively lightweight and folds flat, it doesn't fold down as small as many other 100-watt panels we tested. Since it only folds once, its folded size is rather wide. However, this single fold means it's thinner than many other panels we tested. It's about as packable as other panels, but you'll need a slightly wider space to fit it. Also, the single-fold design makes it faster to pack away than most other panels, which makes up for its slightly larger packed size. If you need an all-around great 100-watt solar panel for your camping adventures, look no further.
Of the smaller panels, the BigBlue SolarPowa 28 is the top dog of portable solar chargers. The BigBlue is impressively efficient in its charging capabilities and performed the best in all our testing of portable solar panels. This model is the fastest portable model we tested, and it delivers consistent charging even as conditions change. Whether it's cloudy or sunny, you'll get good charging capabilities from this model. It has three USB ports, which lets you keep all your electronics charging simultaneously so they're ready when you need them. And when you're ready to move on, this panel folds up small enough to fit in your backpack.
The SolarPowa 28 isn't the absolute fasting charging portable panel, but it still charges fast enough. And if you need an ultralight solar option, this panel also might not be the best choice. At 21.8 ounces, there are certainly lighter models out there to consider. But if you need a lot of consistent power in a relatively portable size, the BigBlue is a great option we highly recommend. And it's pretty affordable to boot.
In terms of larger 100-watt solar panels, the BigBlue SolarPowa 100 ETFE is the best value around. This model costs significantly less than pretty much every other panel we tested. But that's where the differences stop because this performs almost as well as the more expensive large solar panels. It's lightweight and portable with a carry handle and foldable, ultra-portable design. You can easily load it into your car and unload it at a campsite quickly. It has fold-out legs, so you can point it directly at the sun to maximize low-angled morning and afternoon light. It comes with a variety of adapters that make it compatible with most power stations from any brand, eliminating the need to purchase additional cables or adapters. This adds to the already great value of this panel.
The SolarPowa 100 is a great solar panel for the price. It's easy to use and effective, and it comes with a variety of adapters, so you can charge most devices. However, it doesn't have a pocket or other storage case for those adapters or the main storage cable. We ended up transporting this with the cables wrapped around the panel, which worked but wasn't ideal. Overall, we think this is a great high-value option for anyone looking for a reliable and affordable solar panel.
When you're adventuring outside, a fast-charging portable solar panel is key. The X-Dragon 20W quickly charges all your devices in a small, reliable package. This 20W portable solar panel isn't particularly expensive and works with reasonable speed, charging all your devices quickly. It has a high conversion rate, so this panel charges well under sunny skies and on overcast days. Each of the X-Dragon's panels generates up to three amps, which is an exceptional amount of charging capacity for any USB device. It's also lightweight and hangs up easily, making it a solid choice for quick juice-ups on the go.
The X-Dragon folds down to the size of a notebook, so it isn't the smallest portable panel out there. But it unfolds into three panels to capture an impressive amount of sunlight for its relatively small size. If you're looking for a higher-capacity backpacking solar panel, a super portable panel to charge at base camp, or simply need an affordable solar panel to harness energy from the sun, you should check out this model.
The FlexSolar 40W is a high-output, easy-to-use charger that can quickly unfold from the size of a large book into six linked solar panels. This medium-capacity panel has a DC output that can charge portable power stations, as well as USB-C and USB-A outputs for smaller devices. For its medium-sized capacity, it is relatively portable and folds up quite small. It doesn't use any clasps, magnets, or velcro to secure close, which makes unfolding this into a large six-panel array a cinch. And those six panels put out a lot of power, then fold away just as quickly.
The BioLite Solar Panel 100 is the most portable 100-watt solar panel for camping we've found. This model is lighter, thinner, and more packable than most large-capacity models we tested. You can easily slide this into your trunk, with plenty of room to spare for all your gear. It has a comfortable built-in carry handle and zipper pouch, which makes it painless to haul this to your solar charging station at camp. It unfolds in a snap and has two pop-out legs to complete the setup in seconds. With a handy sundial, you can more easily angle this panel directly at the sun, and it's easy to daisy-chain together with more BioLite panels to grow your charging station capacity.
The EcoFlow 110 packs an impressive amount of charging capabilities into a small and lightweight design. This 110-watt solar panel charged our devices impressively fast, even among stiff competition from the other large panels we tested, on both bright sunny days and in gloomy overcast conditions. It folds four times and comes with a zippered carrying case, which makes it easy to bring with you wherever you're setting up your solar charging station. This is also one of just two large solar panels we tested that is completely waterproof, so you can set it up and not worry about a little rain rolling through.
Of course, this durability comes at a cost, and for the Renogy, that cost is portability. Weighing in at over 21 pounds, this is one of the heaviest portable solar panels we've tested. However, if you're setting up a longer-term base camp, putting this hefty panel in place once and simply rotating it to follow the sun may not be a dealbreaker for you. If you want a solar charger that can withstand the test of time and the raging of the weather, this is the one for you.
The BioLite SolarPanel 5+ is a 5-watt solar panel with a small 3,200 mAh battery bank built into its ultralight portable design. We tested a lot of battery banks with an integrated solar panel, but most of those don't work very well to charge via sunlight. This is the only solar panel with an integrated battery that has relatively fast charging speeds. It's one of the few portable solar panel models that also has a kickstand leg and one of even fewer with an integrated sundial to take the guesswork out of pointing it directly at the sun.
While this panel is very lightweight and portable, it isn't the most efficient solar panel available. However, this 5-watt panel is more powerful than the other battery banks with an integrated solar panel that we've seen (many of which generate so little power that it's nearly undetectable). If you're after maximum solar efficiency, you're better off getting a larger panel. However, for an extremely portable solar charger option with an integrated battery bank, this is our favorite model.
Since 2013, we've tested well over 100 different solar chargers and solar panels of varying sizes and capacities. We've used solar collectors of all shapes and sizes for everything from powering our laptops while overlanding to powering an electric bike. For this review, we compiled test results from all the most popular and most promising models currently available, all purchased at retail prices from many of the same popular merchants you likely shop at. Our teams tested and rated all these panels and chargers for different qualities depending on the type of panel and its intended use. We tested their charging speeds in direct sunlight and in overcast conditions, evaluated their portability, explored the bounds of their functionality, and poured over every detail. We hooked them up to portable power stations, our smartphones, laptops, and anything else that needed power. We camped, we hiked, we typed, and we loaded them into our vehicles and backpacks. In short, we put all these solar chargers through the wringer to find the best of the best.
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