We already made orders for materials except for solar panels.
We will ship the first batch in September 2015. Second batch will be shipped in October or Novermber 2015.
Solar Paper is the world’s smallest 2,5W, 5W, 7.5W, 10W solar chargers. When it is sunny it can charge an iPhone 6 in about 2.5 hours. It has the similar charging speed as a wall charger.
We have the world’s top technology making highly efficient solar panels. It means that it can generate more energy than any other solar panels that have the same size.
There will be one USB port instead of two. It is for more stable and efficient PCB board design.
While the volume of competitor’s solar charger is 16.5cm x 22.9cm x 3.8cm and weight is 460g, Volume of Solar Paper’s is 9cm x 19cm x 1.1cm and weight is 120g. It is only 13% of the volume and 26% of the weight of the competitor’s solar charger.
Do not be afraid of shadows anymore!
What will happen when solar panels are covered by shadows or receive low intensity sun light? It will simply stop charging because it doesn’t receive enough sun light to generate the power. Conventional solar chargers require you to re-plug the cable at these conditions. It can be very annoying if you have to watch and re-plug it all the time. Solar Paper has technology for this problem. It is programed to automatically reset when it has enough sun light. With this auto-reset feature, it will generate power more in an efficient and stable way.
Backers from our previous solar project, Solarade, suggested us to have a feature that shows the power generating condition. Because generating power is affected by weather conditions, users wanted to know whether the charger is working fine or not at certain weather conditions. With Solar Paper, we would like to offer even a greater feature. Solar paper has LCD that shows the exact load current (the amount of electrical current passed from a power source to the device that is receiving the power) that Solar Paper is generating. Now users can check the exact power amount and understand better about the solar energy.
We would not put LCD if we are not confident about our technology and our product. We can display the power output so you will see that we did not falsely advertise our capability.
Not all solar panels have electricnodes on their backside. Among three solar panels of 7.5W Solar Paper, solar panel in the middle is the one with electricnodes. Among four solar panels of 10W Solar Paper, two solar panels in the middle are the ones with electricnodes.
We already made orders for materials except for solar panels.
We will ship the first batch in September 2015. Second batch will be shipped in October or Novermber 2015.
Solar Paper has four types of output. I would like to explain an easy way to find the most suitable Solar Paper for you.
First, check the output of devices’ wall charger. If it is 5W (5V,1A. iPhone 3,4,5,6, Galaxy S1,2,3, note1 and etc.) and the place you live always have strong intensity of sun light, 5W Solar Paper will be good enough to charge your smart phones at the same charging speed as a wall charger. But if you live in a place with weak sun light and lots of fog, then I would recommend 7.5W, which will charge devices well even on a cloudy day. 10W is even better, but it also costs more. So for 5W devices, 5W or 7.5W Solar Paper is ideal.
If the output of devices’ wall charger is higher than 10W (5V,2A, iPhone 6+, galaxy S4,5,6), I would like to recommend you to use 7.5W in a strong sun light condition. It will charge devices slightly slower than a wall charger, but will still have a decent speed. So 7.5W is a cost effective choice. If you want faster charging speed or if you do not get much sun, 10W Solar Paper is good for an iPad or a Galaxy tab.
For devices that are not smart devices such as flash light, Bluetooth speaker, external battery and etc., you can use any of Solar Paper from 2.5W to 10W. Charging speed can be faster with higher W Solar Paper.
There are differences between smart devices and other regular devices. Regular devices such as an external battery accept even low currents while smart devices don’t. For example, I used 5W Solar Paper for my iPhone6 (output of its wall charger is 5W). It will charge fine on a sunny day. But if I use it on a very cloudy day or near sunset time, Solar Paper might generate output that is lower than 250mA. In this case, an iPhone will refuse to accept the power and will stop charging. The message, “This accessory may not be supported,” will pop up. In order to avoid this issue, I recommend 7.5W. If the message constantly pops up, because of the weak sun light, charge an external battery first. Then, charge smart devices later on using the external battery that has been charged.
Mission of YOLK:
After the following success of the Solarade, I established a solar company and named it YOLK. It reflects our desire to supply solar energy to electronic devices as yolk does to the fetuses. Our mission isto bring this wonderful green technology to more people. I wish YOLK can be a bridge between solar energy and people, including not only campers and hikers or early adopters but many others who face battery problems in their everyday lives. I believe that solar technology can relieve the battery problem we face and contribute to making the world greener.
YOLK is a solar company specialized in high quality solar modules and panels. While we produce our own products like Solarade(2014) and Solar Paper(2015). We also supplied customized solar modules on client’s demands. Solar modules are mainly used for iot & ict devices.
After graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with BFA emphasis in design object, I have created nolla design studio to continue doing what I love and do best: making things. After the first solar charger project, Solarade, I was attracted by the synergy of technology and design. So I founded a solar charger company, YOLK. YOLK is a small company for now, but this team has the world’s top solar techonology and a vision to spread this wonderful green technology to everyone’s daily life. You will find the most innovative and advanced solar products at YOLK.
Sam Lim has been working in power industry for over 18 years and solar industry for 7 years. He has numerous patents and a wide arrange of experiences with developing power products.
Previous KickStarter Solar project was done by my personal KickStarter account in 2014. We made YOLK’s new KickStarter ID since we plan to keep launch the innovative solar charger at here KickStarter.