What if energy was free? What if we could charge our cell phones without having to plug them into a socket, or charge our iPods without having to power up the whole computer?

While self-charging, energy harvesting cell phones aren’t operational yet, solar powered chargers are. Solio ( www.solio.com) has created a hybrid charger which will give your electrics an environmentally friendly recharge wherever you are, as long as there’s daylight. With this device, one hour of sunlight will charge your phone for 25 minutes of talk time.

We may still dependant on environmentally unfriendly cell phone batteries, but at least now we can charge them without the added use of non energy harvested electricity which burns fossil fuels and costs money.

The units sell for $99.95 on the Solio website. It doesn’t come with its own adaptor so you’ll have to purchase whichever adaptor will fit your particular phone. For an additional $11.95 you can also purchase the 12V Universal Adaptor which accepts any car charger or car adaptor. This allows you to charge anything with a car adaptor.