I was born and grew up in Ukraine, not Russia of course, but in some points, I understand BlackLion. I can not say that solar panels are very popular in Ukraine, but many(especially youth) use them. When I moved to Britain, I began to take a great interest in walking on long distances, on such trips I was helped very much by solar charging. The only difference is that I use a backpack with a built-in battery. I do not know what about the winter since I go on hikes only in the warm seasons, but in the summer I get a lot of recharging from solar energy during travel which usually lasts about 5 days.
In general, there are quite a lot of cool devices with solar panels. And in general, the idea of ecologically clean ways of extracting electricity is very interesting and modern. I like very much all sorts of “how to” that teaches how to build at home a windmill power generator or the same solar battery.
Solar charger – http://www.instructables.com/id/How-20-Make-a-Solar-Cell-Phone-Charger/
Wind charger – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY1oCNhD8_0
Even toys on the solar energy are made!) I have such a flower that I brought from the Czechs, it begins to dance when the sunlight hits the panel)
