It is understood that Samsung launched its first solar cell phone in 2009, the model is called "Solar Guru". Since then, solar cells have been installed on the back of Samsung's "BlueEarth" and "CrestSolar" models to charge with solar energy. In addition, companies such as Kyocera and Sharp have also explored solar cell phones.

It is worth mentioning that according to reports, Huawei, a Chinese company, is likely to release a mobile phone with a solar screen in the future. It is understood that mobile phone screens that can be recharged with solar energy were developed by French manufacturers in 2013 to convert artificial light and sunlight into electricity.

Other companies basically use the back of the phone to load solar cells. Huawei's way of using solar cell phone screens is obviously more shocking.

Apple, the big brother in the mobile phone industry, seems to be a little behind in this regard, but they started applying for many patents in the solar technology section in 2006, and they may come later. Last year, a luxury mobile phone manufacturer in Russia modified the iPhoneX and equipped it with solar panels in the outer casing, which attracted a lot of attention.

The above can be found that there are many mobile phones equipped with solar power, but it has not set off the trend. Why?

The author believes that although it is not uncommon to equip the mobile phone case with solar cells, the design of this type of design must overcome the following difficulties.
 

First of all, the usable area of ​​the mobile phone is small, and the power generation of the solar cell is closely related to the light receiving area. In short, the larger the solar cell is, the greater its power generation. As far as the current development of solar cells is concerned, a small area of ​​a battery like a mobile phone generates very little power, which leads to inefficient charging.



                                              5V Solar Panel from WSL Solar 

Several solar-powered mobile phones that were first introduced can be charged for 1 hour and can only be called for 10 minutes. Netcom Huawei may release a mobile phone screen with a solar cell phone screen in the future. It is said that after 10 minutes of sunlight, it can be converted into a 4-minute mobile phone battery life. This charging efficiency obviously makes it impossible to get the phone out of the charger.

In addition to low charging efficiency, solar cells can be charged when exposed to sunlight, which greatly reduces the convenience of charging the mobile phone. Moreover, solar cells are not expected to be effectively charged at night or on rainy days, which may cause inconvenience to the use of mobile phones.

Finally, in order to increase the absorption efficiency of sunlight, the solar cells are mostly blue and black, which is not friendly to the beautiful design of the mobile phone.

The most important of these problems is the charging efficiency of solar cells. Especially in the face of convenient charging technologies such as “fast charging” and “wireless charging”, solar battery charging is not so practical. At present, if the charging efficiency problem cannot be solved, the solar mobile phone can only serve as an auxiliary to extend the battery life.

But on the other hand, in some harsh environments, mobile phones equipped with solar cells have an excellent advantage. For example, in harsh conditions, deserted mountains, untouchable mountains, and snow-capped mountains, the advantages of solar-powered mobile phones are extremely prominent.

Summary

Solar cell phones are not mysterious, and they have been silently developing. With the development of the solar industry, various types of high-efficiency batteries are emerging one after another, and their efficiency is getting higher and higher. Future mobile phones will be charged by solar charging or will become the norm.

Year-round struggles in the research of the first-line laboratories, as well as companies that continue to explore the application market, will promote the continuous advancement of solar power technology. In the future, solar power will not only be applied to mobile phones, but also widely used in construction, home, automobile, aircraft, etc. As long as the sun is used, there will be a photovoltaic power generation application market.