Whether you're bikepacking or on long trail tours, charging your e-bike on the go with a portable solar panel sounds great and, above all, more sustainable than drawing power from the socket. As good as the idea is, it is not as easy to implement as it sounds. The battery cannot be charged directly at the solar panel as the output voltage is not sufficient. To convert the current from 12 to 230 volts, you need an inverter, ideally an additional battery, other small parts and a bit of manual skill. How to do this is described at copin-solar.ch, although the DIY versions are rather bulky.

The conversion modules from Sunload or Powerbutler are more interesting. These complete solutions are relatively small, but do exactly what they are supposed to do: convert the 12 volt current from the solar panel into 230 volts. It takes four to six hours to fully charge a 500 watt-hour battery with solar energy using a 100 watt solar panel, but with the ever-increasing size of batteries, such devices are reaching the limits of their capacity. Simply taking more folding panels with you is also easier said than done. A foldable 100-watt solar panel from Goal Zero weighs over four kilograms and measures around 50 x 40 centimetres when folded.

Although it is possible to charge e-bike batteries with solar energy, it is still expensive and only practical to a limited extent. If you are only traveling by bike, such as when bikepacking or on long tours, there is currently no easy and efficient solution. If you can afford it and want to take some of the strain off the power grids at home or on camper trips, you can at least reduce consumption to a certain extent with the options described - the more solar panels, the greater the coverage.

goalzero.com
powerbutler.com
sunload-shop.de
copin-solar.ch