I am going to Ghana to work as a volunteer with a group of young women who have had very little education. My aim is to teach keyboard skills and basic book keeping and business letter writing, so they can run their own craft businesses. I wonder if there are solar laptops and printers available at a reasonable price for charities working in the third world. Linda Belmont
There are certainly portable solar power units that will recharge a notebook PC: there are US sources here and here. There's also the £49.99 Solio, but it seems to be aimed at phone, PDA and iPod users,like the Clear Blue Hawaii Solarpac back pack. (But I'm put off both companies by their horrendous websites.)
Lowestoft-based GoSolar might be a potential source but its Web page "was last updated on 04/01/00".
It would easier if you could take a less power-hungry device such as a Psion NetBook or NetBook Pro, but you might have problems with book-keeping software.
What do readers think?
