As solar technology becomes cheaper, more efficient and covered more widely by the media, I continue to hope for a time when I can power my house, car, and technology with solar cells, but in 2008, I am hoping to be able to power my laptop.

Currently, to power a laptop off of solar power, you would be looking at buying materials that would most likely cost more than the laptop you wanted to power, were twice as heavy, and three times bigger, and for an urban traveller, that isn’t efficient at all. In 2008, I hope to see the efficiency of solar cells continue to rise to the point where a panel around the same size as the fifteen inch widescreen, on my MacBook Pro, would be powerful enough to power the machine.

I also hope that the prices of solar technology continues to decline. There has been a great deal about the decreasing cost of solar cell manufacturing lately which has made me more than a little giddy.

Lastly, I would love to see the size and weight of the needed units and the technology involved continue to be refined so that I could easily charge my laptop from a solar panel.

That is what I really hope to see over the course of 2008. Is it a pipe dream? I don’t really think so, but I wouldn’t be surprised if solar technology advances to the point where there are three technologies, and none of them meet all my criteria, but instead each one meeting one of my needs. One being inexpensive, one being more efficient, and one where the rest of the components have been greatly reduced in weight.

What do you hope to see in regards to solar technology in 2008?

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