Due to her efforts, present-day humans have a greater understanding of primate behavior and the need to be compassionate toward all living creatures. Whether she's debating against the inclusion of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the food supply or arguing for more ethical practices to be adopted by all, she consistently inspires people to "be the change" they desire to see and stand up for what they believe in. As One Green Planet said, "innumerable actions have been spawned by Goodall's influence."
Because it can be tiresome advocating for clean waterways, an end to animal cruelty, the importance of organic food, reducing pollution and so on so forth, we're sharing six quotes stated by Goodall that are likely to inspire you. In many instances, it only takes one person to start a movement. Take Jane, for instance; her tireless persistence and passion for better understanding primates has changed the world for the better. Don't let anything prevent you from doing the same.
Our Picks for the Best Portable Solar Generators
Each product featured here has been independently selected by the writer. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.
- Best Overall - Goal Zero Yeti 1500X
- Best High-Capacity - MAXOAK Bluetti EB150
- Best Expandable Power - EcoFlow RIVER Pro
- Best Compact Design - Renogy PHOENIX 300
- Best Portability - Suaoki S370
- Best for Camping - Jackery Explorer 300
- Best Price - Westinghouse iGen200s
How We Reviewed Portable Solar Generators
A good portable generator will offer you backup power in a convenient and reliable way. We have reviewed some of the top models on the market today, and arrived at a few that we think stand out from the rest.
To rank the best solar generators, we considered the following criteria:
- Size and weight. Smaller, more lightweight units offer much greater ease of use. We sought portable solar generators that aren't too challenging to lug around your home, or take with you when you go camping.
- Battery storage capacity. While your generator absorbs light through a solar panel, that energy is ultimately stored in a battery. The battery storage capacity, measured in watt-hours (Wh) determines how long you can use the generator before it requires a recharge.
- Inverter rating. Basically, inverter rating refers to the total number of watts that the solar generator can extract at any given time. Inverter rating, along with battery capacity, determine the wattage and power output of your generator.
- Expandability. Some generators come with a predetermined number of solar panels, while some allow you to add more solar panels as needed. This is an important feature to consider when looking for generators.
- Price point. Naturally, when looking for a new solar generator, staying on budget is always going to be a factor. We chose generators that are competitively priced.
The Best Portable Solar Generators
With these ranking factors in mind, here are our picks for the best portable solar generators available in 2021.
Goal Zero Yeti 1500X
goalzero.com
Goal Zero's line of Yeti portable power stations are well-suited for a wide range of off-grid uses, including emergency power, camping trips, and more. The Goal Zero Yeti 1500X is their most-popular large power station with enough power for everything from cell phones and laptops to medical devices like CPAP machines and even full-size refrigerators.
Why buy: The Goal Zero Yeti 1500X includes a 2000W AC (3500W Surge) inverter giving you the equivalent of a wall outlet power supply on-the-go. It also has seven different port options and a top-of-the-line app that makes it easy to monitor and manage your solar powered generator, no matter where you are.
MAXOAK Bluetti EB150
maxoak.net
For a high-capacity power station, check out the Bluetti EB150 from MAXOAK. Though it's not the most affordable option, you'll get a lot of features and utility for your investment. It includes a lithium ion battery capacity of 1500 Wh. When connected to three 150W solar panels, it can be recharged in about 3.5 to 4 hours.
Why buy: For a portable solar generator designed to power most household appliances under 1000W, the high-powered Bluetti EB150 is a great choice. MAXOAK also backs their product with a 24-month replacement or maintenance warranty.
EcoFlow RIVER Pro
ecoflow.com
EcoFlow boasts an impressive catalog of portable power stations, as well as reliable solar panels. We like the EcoFlow RIVER Pro power station because its technology enables incredibly fast recharging; you can connect it to two 110W solar panels to recharge in as little as 4.5 hours.
Why buy: The EcoFlow RIVER Pro includes a wide range of best-in-class technologies. Offering 720 Wh of power with three pure sine wave AC outlets, and weighing only 15.9 pounds, these units are well-suited for camping and hiking, as well as use around the house. You can also add an additional EcoFlow battery pack to upgrade the power of your generator as needed.
Renogy PHOENIX 300
renogy.com
Renogy produces several different power stations and chargers, but we especially like the PHOENIX 300, a solar power solution that's extremely lightweight and compact. It comes with an easy-grip handle and only weighs 6.4 pounds, making it one of the most portable solar generators around while still offering up to 200W of AC power for off the grid activities.
Why buy: The PHOENIX 300 can provide 337 watt-hours for up to 8 hours of AC continuous power without the noise or fumes associated with gas generators. It includes a number of the most common charging ports like two AC adaptors, a USB-C, USB-A, USB, and a D-Tap port for photography equipment.
Suaoki S370
suaoki.com
Suaoki is a company that's known for simple, functional, reliable technology. Their S370 portable solar generator isn't necessarily flashy, but it's an extremely lightweight option, perfect for camping, hiking, and other outdoor adventures. It includes 14 outlet ports and a pure sine wave inverter, making it a versatile power option.
Why buy: This is one of our top picks for camping and hiking, though it may also serve your needs as a backup power station for small appliances and electronics. A lithium-ion battery gives this generator an incredible capacity battery life, particularly in relation to its compact size.
Jackery Explorer 300
jackery.com
Jackery's portable power stations are ideally suited for camping and hiking. The Explorer 300 offers great portability and fast rechargeable power at an affordable price. It includes two AC outputs, a USB-C, USB-A, USB ports, and a 12-volt car port.
Why buy: The Explorer 300 generator is a good option for those who are new to solar power, thanks to its low price and easy-to-use controls. Jackery offers a number of portable solar panel options, and the power station's MPPT technology means that it can be recharged from the sun in just 5.5 hours.
Westinghouse iGen200s
westinghouseoutdoorpower.com
There are plenty of reasons to consider the Westinghouse iGen200s portable generator. This is one of the more affordable options on the market today, which makes it a good entry-level solar power solution. The unit offers four charging options. You can recharge with solar panels, with the power from your vehicle, with a household power outlet, or with a separate generator.
Why buy: For a simple and inexpensive solar power generator, Westinghouse makes an outstanding product. You can charge up to nine devices at a time; and, depending on how you use it, you can potentially get more than 40 hours out of your generator.
What Types of Batteries Do Solar Generators Use?
It's important to note that solar power generators may employ different kinds of batteries. The most common option is the lithium-ion battery. These tend to be more expensive than lead-acid batteries, at least on the front end. With that said, a lithium-ion battery will prove more durable, which usually makes it the smarter investment in the long run. Solar generators include charge controllers, which regulate the volts of energy coming from the solar panels to the battery to make sure the battery isn't overcharged and damaged.
The energy stored in the battery is converted from DC power into AC power using an inverter or adapter.
What Can You Power With a Portable Solar Generator?
There are different types of solar generators. A backup generator is primarily used to power your home, should your electricity go out. In this article, we focused on portable generators, which are mostly used for hiking and camping. With that said, a portable generator can also be really useful during power outages, potentially keeping your lights, electronic devices, and small devices or appliances on for several hours. Depending on the watts of power your solar system generator kit can support, you can use it to power things like phones, tablets, laptops, TVs, coffee makers, a mini-fridge, certain medical devices, and most anything you would plug into a car charger.
Some of the generators we've listed here can be charged by solar energy or via other sources, including vehicles and power outlets. These different charging solutions make a generator more versatile, though of course, solar energy is what you'll want to use if staying away from fossil fuels is your goal.
What are the Benefits of a Portable Solar Generator?
There are a number of reasons why you might consider a portable solar generator:
- These units are ideally suited for camping and hiking. The ones on our list range in weight from under 10 pounds to over 50, but they are all fairly easy to cart around as needed, or to keep in your camper or RV.
- Though they are not primarily intended to be emergency backup generators, they can certainly be used in that capacity. In particular, they can provide emergency power to important medical devices as well as phones and computers.
- Unlike gas generators, portable solar generators offer power without making a lot of noise or creating a lot of fumes. This makes them much more appealing for campsites.
- Portable solar generators are better for the environment, since they don't rely on gas or diesel fuel to run.
- Using a solar generator is ultimately more cost-effective as you will never need to purchase fuel to recharge it.
Solar Power Can Take You Further
Solar power is one of the best options for dependable, renewable energy. Not only can it help power your house, but you can use these portable generators to carry that power with you, wherever you may go.
There are clearly lots of options on the market today. We hope our guide is helpful to you as you assess our own backup power needs, and as you determine which portable solar generator will give you the greatest value. Note that you can find many of these solar power options through third-party retailers like Amazon. Do your due diligence as you seek the perfect, portable solar solution for you and your family.
Josh Hurst is a journalist, critic, and essayist. He lives in Knoxville, TN, with his wife and three sons. He covers natural health, nutrition, supplements, and clean energy. His writing has appeared in Health, Shape, and Remedy Review.
Building a hotel with shipping containers is exactly what architects Sandro Ramishvili and Irakli Eristavi did and the outcome is extraordinary. Named Quadrum, the creation maintains a minimalist style and is located approximately 2,200 meters (1.36 miles) above sea level. In fact, it is the first boutique hotel located in the Upper Gudauri, Republic of Georgia. Built into the sloping terrain, the shipping container rooms cascade down the mountain.
4 Reasons Why the Shipping Container Housing Trend is Here to Stay https://t.co/Hlbj1B5ouZ @GreenBuildNews— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)1474813049.0
The aim of the project was to "safeguard the environment from the harmful effects of work and leisure." Not only has the landscape remained untouched, all materials used to build the hotel are environmentally friendly and were sourced from local businesses.
Copter shared images of the exciting project with Bored Panda and we think you'll be just as blown away by the shipping container hotel as we were.
Reposted with permission from our media associate True Activist.
By Amanda Froelich
There's a lot to appreciate about the Swedish company IKEA. From its numerous projects which have helped raise awareness about the Syrian peoples' plight to its commitment to the environment by using mushroom-based packaging that decomposes within weeks, the furniture business is progressive, to say the least.
Now, IKEA has released open source plans for The Growroom, which is a large, multi-tiered spherical garden that was designed to sustainably grow enough food to feed a neighborhood. The plans were made free on Thursday with the hope that members of the public will invest their time and resources to create one in each neighborhood, if not in every person's backyard.
The tools required to create the spherical garden include plywood, rubber hammers, metal screws and diligence to follow the instructions comprised of 17 steps. The Huffington Post reports that The Growroom isn't shipped in a flat pack like most IKEA products. Instead, users are required to download the files needed to cut the plywood pieces to size and are encouraged to visit a local workshop where the wood can be professionally cut. The free instructions online walk the builder through the remaining steps.
The Growroom
According to a press release, there are already plans to build Growrooms in Taipei, Taiwan; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; San Francisco and Helsinki, Finland. You can add your city to the list by jumping on the opportunity and crafting a Growroom in your neighborhood.
The project is the brainchild of Space10, based in Denmark. The company wrote:
Local food represents a serious alternative to the global food model. It reduces food miles, our pressure on the environment and educates our children of where food actually comes from … The challenge is that traditional farming takes up a lot of space and space is a scarce resource in our urban environments.
The Growroom … is designed to support our everyday sense of well being in the cities by creating a small oasis or 'pause' architecture in our high paced societal scenery and enables people to connect with nature as we smell and taste the abundance of herbs and plants. The pavilion, built as a sphere, can stand freely in any context and points in a direction of expanding contemporary and shared architecture.
Here are images from the open source design:
The Growroom
The Growroom
The Growroom
Reposted with permission from our media associate True Activist.
By Amanda Froelich
"Chick culling," as it's called, is something the egg industry doesn't like to talk about. And when one learns what the process entails, it's no wonder as to why. Also called "chick disposal," it involves shredding male baby chicks alive as they are deemed to be worthless to the industry because they will not produce eggs when mature. While most commercial chick producers continue to do this (in all countries except Germany) behind closed doors and in secrecy, it seems one producer decided an alternative solution would be more appropriate and left more than 1,000 chicks to die in a field.
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Huffington Post reported that a mass amount of chicks were found dumped in a field in eastern England Friday, causing animal investigators to seek out the source. Inspector Justin Stubbs of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) said he'd "never seen anything like it" and was alerted to the "sea of yellow" birds after passersby contacted him.
Sadly, most were only a day old and had been affected by the frigid temperatures. Stubbs wrote in a statement: "The chicks are only about a day old and are really tiny and quite delicate."
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
By the time of their discovery, some were either already dead or were in such poor condition that they had to be put down. Most, however, "did not appear to be suffering," according to Stubbs.
The chicks were quickly rounded up and put into boxes to keep warm. RSPCA officials are sure that the birds were dropped off by a "third party official" from a nearby commercial chick producer. The investigation is ongoing.
"These tiny birds wouldn't have survived long out on their own at such a young age and in such unpredictable weather conditions," Stubbs added. "For someone to dump these vulnerable chicks is unbelievable."
Watch the video below:
Reposted with permission from our media associate True Activist.
By Amanda Froelich
When Stefano Boeri Architetti presented the idea of installing a vertical forest in Milan, people were beyond thrilled with the idea. Following the success of that introduction, the architecture firm now seeks to construct something similar, but in Nanjing, China.
Stefano Boeri Architetti
Inhabitat reported that two towers which overlook the Nanjing Pukou District will be completed by the end of 2018. Overflowing with 1,100 trees from 23 local species, as well as 2,500 cascading shrubs and plants, the installation will clean the city's air by producing 132 pounds of oxygen every day. Additionally, passersby and tourists will be greeted with a breathtaking view.
Stefano Boeri Architetti
The buildings, of course, will include more than just plants. The taller tower (656 feet) will hold offices, a museum, a green architecture school and a rooftop club. And in the second tower (354 feet), a 247-room Hyatt hotel will be found, complete with a rooftop swimming pool. Shops, restaurants and a conference hall will also be included in the second building in a podium that will rise 65 feet.
Stefano Boeri Architetti
Because city air is notoriously dirty with pollution, those who stay in the hotel will have the unique opportunity to benefit from the oxygen produced by the plants as well as form a closer bond with nature.
According to Stefano Boeri Architetti, there will be approximately 600 tall trees and 500 medium-sized trees, in addition to the other foliage, that will help regenerate biodiversity in the area.
Stefano Boeri Architetti
The project is being celebrated because it will be the first green tower in all of Asia. Investors are also satisfied with the fact that the conceptualized idea will further modernization efforts in the south of China's Jiangsu province. Because of the potential economic boost the towers will provide, Nanjing Yang Zi State-owned Investment Group Company Limited is promoting the project.
Stefano Boeri Architetti
It may be the first-of-its-kind in China, but the architecture firm intends to build more green towers in Shanghai, Guizhou, Shijiazhuang, Liuzhou and Chongqing.
Reposted with permission from our media associate True Activist.
Nearly six years after the initial explosion caused a catastrophic meltdown at the Daiichi nuclear power plant in the Fukushima prefecture of Japan, the situation has suddenly taken a drastic turn for the worst.
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the company which owns and operates the now defunct power plant, announced Thursday that radiation inside the containment vessel of one of the plant's failed reactors has now reached levels undetected since the disaster first occurred in 2011.
Radiation inside the reactor has reached 530 sieverts per hour, a drastic increase from the previously recorded 73 sieverts per hour recorded in the aftermath of the meltdown. The level of radiation is so high that an official of the National Institute of Radiological Sciences told the Japan Times that medical professionals have never considered dealing with this level of radiation in their work.
TEPCO has stated that the cause of the radiation spike is a 2 meter diameter hole inside the bottom grating of the containment vessel. The hole was likely caused by melted fuel.
Images from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant's No. 2 reactor revealed a hole thought to be made by fuel leaking out of the pressure vessel.Nikkei Asian Review
Plans have been made to send a robot into the area to survey the damage as the true extent of the structural damage remains unknown. However, previous attempts to use robots to gauge damage or seal breaches at Fukushima have failed. Several robots were deployed to seal a breach in another containment vessel, which continues to release 300 tons of radioactive water a day into the Pacific Ocean. Due to the high temperatures present, all of the robots were rendered nonfunctional and unable to complete the task.
While TEPCO previously claimed that most of the reactor's nuclear fuel remained contained in the pressure vessel, company spokesman Yuichi Okamura stated that "it's highly possible that melted fuel leaked through."
TEPCO has yet to state the expected impact of the radiation spike or the potential consequences of the nuclear fuel leak. The company is expected to detail its plan for containment and offer more details regarding the impacts of this latest development in the coming week. However, given that TEPCO admitted to "covering up" the impact of the initial disaster with the full complicity of the Japanese government, it remains to be seen if they can be taken at their word.
Reposted with permission from our media associate True Activist.
In an unforeseen move by the famous circus, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey owners have decided to shut down "The Greatest Show On Earth" forever after plummeting ticket sales no longer allowed the show to be viable.
Kenneth Feld, chairman and CEO of Feld Entertainment, which owns Ringling Bros., announced the closure to performers on Saturday night before releasing a statement explaining the reason for their decision, which he has said is hard for him and his family.
Stockpiling Moms
When the group announced last year that they would be ending the use of elephants in their shows it seemed to be a great opportunity for growth again because animal advocates might no longer boycott the show. However, what the entertainment group found was quite the opposite. Juliette Feld, Kenneth's daughter and the company's chief operating officer, said:
"We know now that one of the major reasons people came to Ringling Bros. was getting to see elephants. We stand by that decision. We know it was the right decision. This was what audiences wanted to see and it definitely played a major role."
Ironically, getting rid of the elephants wound up being worse for the circus than anything else. Feld Entertainment did make the right decision with the elephants, but their existing animal "performers" continued to suffer, which may have caused animal advocates to steer clear even after the elephants left. Those remaining animals, including lions, tigers, camels, donkeys, alpacas, kangaroos and llamas, will apparently be sent to "suitable" homes while the elephants will stay at their Center for Elephants Conservation.
Paul Allen's 'Great #Elephant Census' Shows Catastrophic Decline in Africa https://t.co/4F5irXSX86 @CenterForBioDiv @LeoDiCaprio @PaulGAllen— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)1472734306.0
According to the company, they tried a number of methods to keep the show relevant and appealing to the modern public to no avail. An interactive app was developed, the first female ringmaster was hired and other popular elements of their successful shows, such as motorbike daredevils, were incorporated to keep the show fresh. Nothing significantly improved attendance or interest in the show, whose sales have been declining in the last 10 years.
The show will officially close in May after another 30 or so shows in major cities. The decision was based on a combination of issues, including high operating costs and changing public tastes. Approximately 500 people perform and work on both touring shows for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey and most will be out of a job after the show performs its last show. Some performers will be used in other profitable shows that the entertainment group manages, like Monster Jam and Disney on Ice. Thankfully, they will help with housing relocation for the workers that lived strictly on the rail cars that transported the performers and crew.
Reposted with permission from our media associate True Activist.