Festival Phone Fun - wind powered charger!

Last year at Electric Picnic I abandoned my 3G Nokia phone with camera and all kinds of gizmos because the battery life sucked and I couldn't be bothered guarding my phone at the charging stations for hours. Now, via markhams blog I discover wind powered phone chargers for such events are on the way!

Prototyped for Orange to trial at Glastonbury, these gadgets may become commercially available in the future.

Orange's™ wind generator prototype is of the standard horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) type, with a blade propeller diameter of 30cm. Weighing a mere 150 grams (without tent mount) the wind generators 3 phase alternator produces around ½ watt of power, enough to trickle charge a rechargeable battery. This stored power is then ready for a mobile phone to be plugged into the small control box and fully charged within 1-2 hours.

Critics suggest a solar panel or a hand crank method might be superior, but I'd prefer to have an orange propeller on my tent any day!