Why not put a photoelectric cell on the back of your phone?
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(you mean a small solar panel?)
It would make a thick phone even thicker and it would mostly be unused because your phone don’t spend most of its time in the natural sun. (or the user has a phone case)
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and I don’t think a solar panel with the surface of the phone’s backplate would provide any significant amount of electricity. unless you make it unfold into a bigger one, which would be a hassle and make the phone even thicker…
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that’s a nice idea on the face of it : produce your own energy, you get a somewhat self-sufficient device, consume less from the grid, etc.
But it’s, to me, wholly impractical.
First, the back of the phone would need to be facing the sun most of the time, which is never the case.
Plus, it would need to withstand the heat from being hit by the sun most of the time, which is not advised for electronics.
I know phones are getting bigger but I don’t think we really can capture that much in terms of radiation to power the phone or fill the battery, with so small an area.
There are a lot of flaws there
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Just look at recent solar cells at the phone size. They are too weak. The heat that would reach the battery and the whole phone would, in my opinion, do more damage than getting electricity.
One solution would be to use a bigger solar cell with a long cable. You can use 12V solar cells (20V if not connected!) with chargers for cars. Many chargers accept up to 24V. If you have an old power bank you could use it as a buffer.
If you start comparing the prices of 12V solar cells with the prices of 40V solar cells you end up with 40V modules and can build up a balcony solar power plant. Then you have several voltage converter in use until you charge a phone. A balcony power plant is no cool lowtech but good for the environment and in germany it pays.
An argument for the 12V solution is: You get knowledge about solar systems and can play around. You could also replace the 12V solar cell with a 40V solar cell and buy a cheap step down converter to 12V, if you have space and money.
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