Sharp’s mobile phone solar panel

It has been a while since we have spoken about solar-powered cell phones, and for good reason. There were a number of problems with this kind of technology on a cell phone, mainly the size, but Sharp seems to have found a way around this with the thinnest mobile phone solar panel.

Akihabara News tells us that this new thin solar panel is now available to manufactures to use in their future hardware but it comes at a price. The LR0GC02 Solar Panel module is just 0.8mm thick, and for that reason can only output 300 mW of power.

That is nowhere near enough to power a cell phone on its own, so is there just to help top up the traditional Li-ion battery. This is still a move in the right direction as it saves us having to rely on a power-outlet to keep charging up the phones battery. There are other alternatives to solar-power, such as a Self-Winding Cell Phone.