As part of their Earthjustice United States of Efficiency Contest, Instructables asked entrants to create energy efficient projects from scratch out of easy-to-find items. The winning project was the “MightyMintyBoost”, a solar-powered iPod/iPhone charger.
Housed in an Altoids tin, this innovative little wonder can charge an iPhone using the sun’s powerful rays. it also serves as a compact, portable USB power supply — storing enough energy to charge a device on the go — and can be rigged to power any cell phone or PDA with a USB connector.
The creator writes: “Apple has sold over 30 million iPodTouch/iPhone units- imagine charging all of them via solar power…. If every iPhone/iPodTouch sold was fully charged every day (averaging the battery capacity) via solar power instead of fossil fuel power we would save approximately 50.644gWh of energy, roughly equivalent to 75,965,625 lbs. of CO2 in the atmosphere per year.”
With this device, you’ll no longer have to worry about searching for and being tethered to an electrical outlet when your phone is out of juice! Check out the instructions here on the Instructables site.
Info and image via Honus via Instructables.