Portable Solar Energy
Another hallmark of this new generation of phones, the Samsung Blue Earth that is recently launched in Europe combines the characteristic of other assets designed to appeal to the eco-consumer. For instance, its box and packaging is made from recycled materials.The ecological argument seems obvious as the solar power limits consumption of grid electricity and contributes to efforts to preserve the÷ environment, seriously threatened by the current energy over consumption. But what about the energy balance of solar models? Certainly, they are virtually autonomous in terms of electricity consumption (assuming that sunlight is adequate and that the user can expose his laptop much of the day, which is not always the case). But like all laptops use only 17% of the energy consumption of a mobile phone during its life cycle, most is consumed in manufacturing. According to Jerome Dupuis who"s the Assistant Director of Corporate Partnerships at WWF and has worked with Orange Mobile; laying sheets of green notebooks that sells the French operator indicate their environmental impact.
Adding solar panels on a cell phone allow it, at least, to alleviate the heavy energy bill. One recent report on÷ photovoltaic panels that accompanies the development of solar energy in France for nearly 20 years, the results of the analysis of life cycle indicates that "energy payback" is "about 3 years. In other words, to offset the energy expended to produce a photovoltaic panel, it should be used at full capacity for minimum three years.
Consumers in Europe are frequently changing their mobile phones (every 18 - 24 months) this means that, there is no ecological interest to buy this kind of solar cell. The power saving achieved with the use will not offset the additional costs of energy production.
Buying an external solar charger for your mobile phone could be ecologically beneficial provided that it is used on future phones that you use.
Another question that Jerome Dupuis asks the mobile consumers is; "Are we capable of recycling such an item, considering the maturity of workshops reprocessing?" In fact, solar cells do not recover as easily as per the Photovoltic.info website. I have doubts about the÷ environmental benefits of such a facility at the back of a phone, concludes Jerome Dupuis.
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