With the limited availability of electrical power where we were going to in Argentina, I decided to finally buy the Power/Solar Gorilla set from Power Traveller. I had known about it for a long time and was very curious about its usefulness in the field. The Solar Gorilla is a sturdy, foldable solar panel about the size of a slim notebook and the Power Gorilla is a managed lithium battery which you charge with the solar panel and can later draw power from at different voltages. A huge series of adapters allow you to connect almost anything to the Power Gorilla. This intermediary battery is pretty much essential because of the huge variations of output from the solar panels. The battery will take any power the solar panels can produce and store it, ready to be delivered at a steady pace and higher voltage, when needed. The voltage can be set from 5 to 24 volts and the built in controller electronics will try to protect your devices from any mistake in polarity or voltage the best they can.

As you probably don’t want to carry the whole set with you, the first problem with the Gorillas is to determine exactly which cables and adapters you will need to power your kit. This can take some time and necessitate additional purchases as some of the more exotic adapters (iPad, Canon EOS 5D MkII) are available separately or even need to be DIYed (MacBook) you may also have to find 12v chargers or adapters for some devices (Canon 1D series cameras, AA battery chargers). 

A strong sun will charge the Power Gorilla in about two days and that will give you enough power to charge most laptops twice or to charge six Canon EOS 1 Ds Mk III batteries, probably enough for the needs of one photographer. To accelerate things if needed, you can connect two solar panels to your battery. To me, the most complicated thing was to figure out which adapters I needed. Once in the field, I just left the solar panel and the Power Gorilla out at all times, just connecting gear to it when it needed charging. No fuss whatsoever. Do note that while the Solar Gorilla is fairly weatherproof, the Power Gorilla needs to be protected from the rain and you would probably want to tape the connectors.

If you need electricity on the go, this is the simplest and cheapest system available. Highly recommended.