you’ll need not only a solar panel, but also a charge controller too, so when the panel isn’t producing anything, the energy doesnt backwards. its recommended for anything above 5 watts, which a laptop definitely is. the problem is, since laptops have ac/dc adapters, you have to change the solar panels dc electricity to ac with an inverter, and the laptops adapter converts it back to dc to charge the laptop battery. someone should design something such that you can eliminate this silly step, but I’m afraid of damaging my laptops battery.
I built a solar powered phone charger, or rather it can charge anything that plugs into a cars cigarette lighter. This way I didn’t need an inverter. Solar panel—> charge controller—> battery. The charge controller also outputs 3, 6, and 12V via to 1/8 in jacks (3 and 6V) and a 1/4 in jack (12V). then I used a guitar cable (1/4 in) and soldered it to cigarette lighter type jack that I got at radioshack. works well.
If anyone has an old laptop battery that works but they don’t use I’d love to design something that eliminates the need for an inverter :) That way, we could all charge our laptops with solar power.
@ waterskier2007… the sun generates 1000W / m^2 on a perfect day at the equator. Thats a lot. and most importantly, free.