Right, let’s see I’m about to go on an adventure. Do I have everything? GoPro, Drone, Digital Camera, Two way radio, mobile phone, head torch, camping lantern and a decent GPS. Have I forgotten anything?……………oh yeah, let’s not forget our food, water, clothing and tools to maintain our bike or vehicle of choice.

Solar panel on bike
Riding with a solar panel on the back of your bike is a good option for providing free power anywhere.

Getting on the road today requires a degree of planning that was unheard of only 20 years ago. The mere process of ensuring that all our technology is charged and neatly packed is more time consuming than simply throwing food and clothing into a pannier. In the old days it was just a matter of packing your swag, checking the oil, fuel, kicking the bike into life and riding out of town.  Modern adventurers are not only looking for more isolated adventure spots but wanting to share every minute with their friends, family and the world in general.

Even in Australia access to reliable 240 volt power to recharge our sensitive electronic devices is limited, and the further extreme our adventures the less likely we are of maintaining fully charged equipment. Having a battery die on your camera just when you get to the magical place or being unable to photograph and blog that amazing sunrise you got up at 4.0 am to shoot is probably one of the most frustrating parts of modern adventuring.

One solution is to undertake extreme levels of planning so you are somewhere, either a caravan park with power or a motel room to recharge your batteries every three to four days. Alternatively, you might consider some form of charging device and a battery pack to collect any excess energy from the sun, which you can later push out to your power hungry devices as needed.

Panel and Battery
The basic units come in two solid packs and can be stored on your bike or kayak when not in use.

On a recent trip I chose both. While on the road I had a 14 Watt Solar Panel slung and secured to my top bag with the power cord snaking into the side pocket where I secured a 17700 mAh (milliAmp hour) battery. I’ll go into detail about calculating power consumption later in this blog, but suffice to say, that’s enough to power at least ten 1220 mAh GoPro batteries.  Both the battery and the solar panel were from the company “Goal Zero” who claims to make power solutions for the adventure industry.

I originally chose this configuration for my kayak and a 21 day adventure on the Murray River, but as the borders were opening and closing like a fridge door in a house of hungry teenagers, I thought it better to take my bike around Queensland instead.

Goal Zero Kayak Power
A 14 Watt Solar system for 21 days on the Murray River.

The battery is rated as IPX67 (when connected, in other words when the plugs are inserted) which is an international standard to represent an electronic device’s ability to withstand extreme weather elements. The IPX designates the standard and the numbers represent the dust and water resistance levels. The first number is the dust rating, with the second number representing the level of water resistance, where a product has only one number it only represents the water rating. A rating of six for dust means it is fully dust proof, where as, a seven for water means it can withstand being submerged at one metre for 30 minutes, which is pretty good.

What was the “kit” configuration?

There are a multitude of options available through Goal Zero, I chose to put together my own kit. In hindsight I think the Adventure 70 battery pack was more than I actually needed and I would have saved money and space if I had purchased the Adventure 30 instead. After a full days riding the battery would only show three out of the five lights indicating its charge level. Not that this is a real problem, because I just plugged my battery into the outlet of my Biolite Stove for extra charge at night time. But a bigger solar panel my have charged the battery more fully but then again where do you stop, there’s o only so much room to carry this stuff on a bike.  Still, there were those times where I was able to charge it from the camping ground’s power outlet which enabled me to have more battery power than I would have had with a smaller pack. There are three main components to my kit set up including:

  • 14  Watt solar panel
  • Adventure 70 Battery Pack
  • Solar Regulator
Goal Zero Solar Kit
The complete solar solution for kayaking and motorcycle riding.

Determine Power Needs

Working out your power needs for an adventure is not as difficult as it might seem, but you do need to know how long your device will run on a full battery when it is being used. For example, a GoPro 8 has different battery discharge times depending on the resolution in which you are filming. GoPro web site claim the following estimates of battery life for a 1220 mAh battery:

  • 4K@30 fps – 74 mins
  • 2.7K@120 fps – 45 mins
  • 1440p@120 fps – 65 mins
  • 1080p@120 fps – 50min
  • 1080@60 fps – 81 mins

Likewise an iPhone battery life will vary depending on the model and the features used. An iPhone 6 has a 1810 mAh while a iPhone 13 Pro has 3095 mAh battery. Using the Adventure 70 battery which is 17700 mAh or 17.7 Amp/Hours of capacity you can calculate the total number of GoPro batteries that can be charged, by simply dividing 17700/1220 = 14.5 battery charges (note that this is not a given as there are all sorts of variables when using battery packs and lithium Ion batteries). Then you would just need to work out how many hours you want to film for and what resolution you wanted your films to be presented in. 

How much power can a 14 Watt solar panel produce?

I chose the 14 Watt Goal Zero solar panel because it was the best fit for the available space I had, and because it was able to be folded in half. While a larger capacity panel would have been useful, I had to make a compromise between capacity and available space. The panel was not up to producing enough power to fully charge my battery pack in a single day.

To determine how long it would take to charge the battery with the solar panel I used the following calculations:

  • Watts = Volts *Amps. 
  • 14 Watts = 18V * ?Amps
  • In transposing the calculation it works out like:
  • Amps = 18Volts/14Watts
  • Amps = 1.25

The calculation therefore is 17.7Ah / 1.25 Amps = 14.16 hours to fully charge the battery. The Goal Zero calculates the charge rate at between 11 and 18 hours for a 14 Watt panel so the calculation is pretty close to the mark. This is also dependant on the amount of sunlight that hits the panel and is able to be converted into energy. The average amount of sunlight hitting a panel in Queensland is 6 hours providing all things are equal. This means it will take over two days to fully charge the Adventure 70 battery with a 14 Watt Solar Panel. It is important to ensure your panel is clean, a dirty panel will not produce as much as a clean panel due to interference with the suns rays.

 
Dirty Solar Panel
A dirty panel like this one will reduce the charging capacity of you panel.

Decide on how you will carry it

The panel is flexible and has six tie down loops. It comes with a single caribena clip, so I decided to buy two more and attached the centre loop to my bag strap and the other two clips were attached to a bungy cord that wrapped around my carrier rack. On the kayak I clipped the caribena’s to the deck elastic and secured the water proof case to the top of my bait box with locking straps. There are endless ways to attach the panel, and as they are fairly light weight they don’t tend to drag on the loops. After spending 30 days on the back of my bike there was only minor damage (see below for details)

Panel Mounting Points
The Carabiner Clips locked onto my carry handle and I clipped a single bunny cord around my back rack and onto the corner carabiner

Goal Zero Solution

If you go onto the Goal Zero web site there are all sorts of solutions for all sorts of adventures. I chose this company because it was only one of three companies I could find at the time that offered a total solution. It also provided solar solutions in support of remote African and Asian communities which is a philosophy I liked, so it aligned with my personal values. The idea that small solar units can help bring clean technology to communities appeals to me and I found my own values aligning to those of the company’s.

There were cheaper solar panels and definitely an assortment of battery storage solutions. However, most that I looked at not only required the solar panel and battery, but also a fairly substantial solar regulator to govern the power coming into the battery. The Goal Zero solar panel has a solar regulator, but unlike other products this unit is designed in such a way that it is built into the overall design and incorporated into the power workflow. 

What do I think of the product?

I travelled over 7000 kilometres including 1200 kilometres on bull dusty, corrugated roads. The  14 Watt panel was clipped to my top bag, the cord snaked to the solar regulator which was attached to a pelican case inside my top bag, which also held my battery. The battery was connected with one port to my GoPro Charger and the other to my rechargeable AA battery charger. It withstood corrugations, bull dust, extreme heat, below zero cold mornings and the occasional rain shower. It still works!! This was a great test of the product and without doubt it passed the test.

The panel folds in half and clicks together with magnets, when folded up it makes a tough tight package that can be easily stowed away. I had the confidence that it would not break easily. It’s convenient to use and, easy to carry and does the job fairly well. But you pay for this convenience, they are not the cheapest product on the market at approximately $A280.00 for the panel and the same for the battery it is definitely not cheap. 

Back of kit showing connections
The back of the panel has all the leads needed to transfer power from the panel to the battery.

I also liked the IPX67 rating and rubberised surround for the Adventure 70 Battery. I use this battery in all sorts of situations and while not travelling it sits nicely in storage with my solar panel.

In terms of the charging capacity the 14 Watt solar panels was sufficient for my power needs but not enough to fully charge the Adventure 70 battery within a normal six hour day and to be fair the company does not marry the two together but prefers the Adventure 30 as a play mate. This is not a surprise as you will have seen from the calculations above it would take between 11 and 18 hours to fully charge the Adventure 70 battery. If. you were camping for a couple of days I guess it would be ok. In saying this the average 6 hours of sunlight gained during my riding was enough to charge my four GoPro batteries, all three head touch AAA batteries and my mobile phone. When the battery was too flat to charge, I used other methods to supply my power needs including using my Biolite Stove and the 12V USB charger from my bike’s battery. In general though the solar panel would charge the battery in a day from empty to three out of the five charge indicator lights which was generally enough for two to three days of activities. If I stopped for a few days and allowed the solar panel to do it’s thing I would have more than enough power.

Wear and Tear

The stress of thirty days on the back of a motor bike doesn’t come without consequence. The panel and the battery took a beating. The battery is covered in protective rubber so it survived in excellent condition, that and the fact that it was in a pelican case for over half of the journey. The solar panel didn’t fair as well. The electrical connection to the panel came lose showing a couple of very thin wires, three magnets came away from the plastic base and there are signs of the fabric on the front pealing a part, without maintenance these issues have the potential to wreck the product. Luckily there are glues today that can weld all sort of plastics. In my video I show how I fixed these small issues.

Damage to the back of the panel is easily fixed but does indicate there are some weak areas.
Slight delimitation on the edge of the panel. Again easily fixed.

Final Word

In my opinion the Goal Zero is a worthwhile investment, a great product and one that more than provides for the solo traveller’s power needs. It is important to ensure that you pair it with the appropriate battery back up system to maximise your power supply and reduce your overall costs. The build quality of the solar panel and battery is what makes this a worthwhile investment and I intend to take it on many more adventures including the kayaking trip down the Murray River.

From a price perspective it is not the cheapest panel and battery combo on the market, but I guess the old saying “You get what you pay for” is apt in this case. I hope you enjoyed this review. If you have any comments please leave them below. Safe travels…….. Swaggie:)

Where to buy?

These panels can be purchased through Amazon at the link provided below. If you purchase through this link I will receive a small commission. This does not in anyway influence my comments or criticism of the product. I believe in trying to be objective so that you can rely on my evaluation when making your decision.

Goal Zero Nomad 14 Plus Solar Panel

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Gary is a travel writer, educator, training specialist and part time adventurer. When not paddling rivers, diving on the Great Barrier Reef or riding down some dusty outback track on his trusted KLR650 "Emu" he likes to explore historical areas and look for the back story.

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