[B]Using solar energy for charging equip...

“ There is absolutely no access to electricity while you are in the Bale Mountains. There are neither mains nor a car that you can charge the batteries of your devices from. Therefore, you have either to bring spare batteries for your camera, flashes and other equipment for the whole duration of your trip, or to charge them from a solar panel.

I had 8 LP-E6 batteries (for the main camera) and 5 BP-511 (for the second one). I use my cameras only for photography, never for video capturing, thus 8 batteries would be sufficient to power the EOS 5D Mark II for about two weeks, especially if I wouldn't use the Live View. With 2 or 3 batteries more I would have had enough electric power for my main camera for the whole time of trekking. However, powering many other devices, particularly those that need NiMh batteries, such as GPS, flashlights, photographic flashes, etc., is not that easy. I had over 30 AA rechargeable batteries and about a dozen of AAA, but they were still too few. Unlike lithium batteries, NiMh batteries get drained quite quickly. For example, I had to exchange the AAA batteries of my head lamp every two days. I didn't use flashes much during this trip, but if I did, it would most likely require at least 2 sets (i.e. 8) of AAA batteries a day for each of my 2 flashes, i.e. 16 batteries. Certainly, it isn't possible to bring enough batteries for such use. The only possibility to power all necessary devices long enough is to recharge batteries when you are in the field.

I had a 30Wp CIGS (Copper Indium Gallium diSelenide) solar panel and a MultiECon Charger M60 battery made by Sunload on this trip. This bundle is not cheap but is one of the best on the market. The foldable solar panel weighs about 1kg. Under African sun it needs as little as 3-4 hours to fully charge the storage battery. With a more powerful, though more expensive, 62Wp version, even less time would be necessary. This higher capacity may be of advantage in rain season or an area with more cloudy weather - when the exposure to sun is reduced and the charging process is slowed down. During dry season in the Ethiopian mountains most days were with bride sunshine, and the 30Wp version worked very well for me. To the MultiECon Charger M60 battery two such panels can be connected when quicker loading is needed. I am planning to get a 62Wp version in future and use it in expeditions to regions with bad weather even together with the 30Wp one. This would be also necessary with equipment that consumes more energy, for instance, a computer, that would more quickly drain the storage battery which would need to be recharged more often. Since my most used devices were 2 cameras (that had many spare batteries), a remote video control for a camera, 2 flashlights, GPS, and a satellite phone, I even used the 30Wp solar panel every couple of days. When the MultiECon charger was full, I could charge from it 2-3 camera batteries, 8 AA or AAA batteries, a lithium battery for a flashlight and the satellite phone in just one night.

The total weight of such solar energy equipment is almost 2kg. It is not really lightweight, but also not too heavy. It may not be suitable for a backpacker, but if your luggage is being carried by horses, 2kg less or more don't make much difference. The Sunload kit that I described above did an extremely good service for me during this trip. Therefore I am recommending it here. There are also similar products of other manufacturers that may be as good or better. You may take a look at solar panels and kits by GoalZero, Nature Power, me2solar, Brunton, and others. All such equipment that is suitable for use in harsh environment and will really be able to do the job of powering all your devices is quite pricy, particularly the foldable CIGS panels. To yield enough power from the sun you need a large surface. To be transported outdoors, it has to be foldable. Large foldable CIGS panels with 25Wp capacity and more cost starting from 300-400€, and there are no alternatives that would be cheaper and reliable at the same time.
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