A Solar Charger for Apartment Dwellers

For many homeowners, there's room to install solar panels – on the roof. But for folks who live in apartments, it's another, often more difficult, story.

Now Grouphug, a new and far-seeing green-tech company based in New York, has designed a solar charger that can be used anywhere with an outside window. Built from four small solar panels, a battery, a 13x10 inch wooden frame and a string, the device can be hung from any surface strong enough to support it.

Grouphug says its Window Solar Charger can load small devices after receiving from eight to ten hours of sunlight. For example, a full Charger battery, the company says, will juice up iPhones twice and Android phones a bit less. Devices can plugged into the Charger frame's USB port day or night.

The idea for the Charger came from Grouphug’s founder and lead product-designer, Krystal Persaud, who had long wanted to bring off-grid solar energy to her New York City apartment.

"There is a world where renewable energy can be user friendly, and ridiculously good looking," the company says. "Most importantly, [this will] reduce your reliance on fossil fuels. We’re not going to be able to go off the grid overnight, but we can take steps to getting there."

So jump in! Take one small step for renewable energy, one giant step for windowpanes.

--By Stephanie Parker