"What I Want for Christmas" is a piece I published in "A List..." in September, 1996 and was republished in the newsletter of the Boston Area Solar Energy Association, whose monthly lectures I'd been videotaping and putting on public access TV around eight or so years around that time. Mother Earth News published it in 1998 but misprinted part of the story.
The product described is the Solar Brick, a solar battery backup system. It's still not available on the market although I thought the Xantrex Technologies 852-2071 Xpower AC/DC Powerpack Solar With 400 Watt Inverter, Two AC Outlets, USB Port, And Digital Display was coming close until I read the user reviews.
What I Want for Christmas
I want a silicon on silicon sandwich, a photovoltaic solar cell with an integrated computer chip power controller. Modular, so that I can clip them together and power a house. Or a vehicle. Small enough so that I can carry one in a backpack. Or a pocket.
It should be solid, but not too heavy, a chunk in my hand, smaller than a paperback book, and include the PV cell with a clear, unbreakable cover, the power controller, and a battery. The power controller should be built on a chip and the controls would look like a multitester so that I can monitor ohms/volts, AC and DC, input and output. The removable battery should be light, rechargable, recyclable, and non-toxic. It should have a charge indicator so that I could see how close to empty I am running and a set of connectors to adapt to as many kinds of plugs and sockets as possible.
It should be able to handle all kinds of appliances, automatically adjusting to the solar input and the electrical load. I'd be able to dial up just the optimum amperage and voltage I need for the CD player or any hand power tool. I could plug into any grid system in the world with the power controller, and optimize that current for the highest efficiency of the appliance I need to use. I could recharge all my batteries, from dry cell aaa's, to A, B, C, D and 12 volt DC batteries, and generate any variety of AC.
A Solar Brick (copyright, trademark, patent applied for) I can fit in my pocket should cost less than twenty bucks. I could use it to power my Walkman or laptop, a flashlight or cellular phone. An emergency household system might cost a couple of hundred dollars and be able to supply light and commmunications during blackouts and brownouts and recharge all the household batteries in between.
I think it's probably within our current technology to build this kind of product, maybe even to meet those price points. I'd like to have one for Christmas. And a percentage of the gross profits. Please.
Ontario Hydro now produces something called an En-R-Pak which is a modular, stand-alone pv system with battery and inverter. It's about as big as a picnic cooler and costs about $1000, as I recall.
Update: I could have been wrong on that price. Today, an En-R-Pak sells for nearly $2500.