We’ve covered dozens of solar powered gadget chargers in the past, all charging your popular gadgets through USB cables or other special cable. So far however, we haven’t seen a solution to provide an actual outlet.

The Earthtech Portable Power Kit is marketed as a gree way to charge your laptop, and it does do a great job of this. A fully charged battery will run a 25w laptop for about 6 hours.

It’s much more than just a laptop charger however. It provides both a 12V DC outlet, and a 115V AC outlet for charging any other device or appliance. TV, Phone, Computer, Radio, etc. All can be powered by the battery.

Here’s a list of examples of operating times when running off battery power:

Approximate Operating Times for 115 Volt Products:

• Cordless Telephone (5 Watts): 40 Hours Operating Time
• Home Security System (5 Watts): 40 Hours Operating Time
• Clock Radio (8 Watts): 20 Hours Operating Time
• Portable Stereo (10 Watts): 15 Hours Operating Time
• Flourescent Work Light (14 Watts): 12 Hours Operating Time
• 5” Color TV (20 Watts): 8 Hours Operating Time
• Laptop Computer (25 Watts): 6 Hours Operating Time
• Table Lamp (40 Watts): 3.5 Hours Operating Time

Approximate Operating Times for 12 Volt DC Products:

• Cell Phone (6 Watts): 36 Hours Operating Time
• Fish Finder/Depth Sounder (6 Watts): 36 Hours Operating Time
• Bilge Pump (36 Watts): 6 Hours Operating Time
• Portable Cooler (30 Watts): 5 Hours Operating Time
• Car Vacuum (85 Watts): 1.2 Hours Operating Time

Pretty impressive times!

This can be incredibly valuable for emergencies, or just a small way to offset some of your electricity usage to a more green source.

The Power Kit was assembled by Earthtech from two different products. You can buy these two individually or as the kit to save some money.

The Battery pack is the XPower Powerpack 300 Plus, which Earthtech sells for $139.00

The Solar cell charger is the Sunlinq Portable Solar Panel Charger which Earthtech sells for $409.99

You can get these both in the Portable Power Kit for $478.95 (sale price).

Popularity: 36% [?]

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Tags: alternative energy, gadget charger, laptop, portable power kit, Solar, Sunlinq, Xpower

Bamboo is becoming an interesting eco-friendly casing material, replacing the traditional plastic.

We’ve already covered the bamboo LCD monitor, and bamboo flash drives, but it doesn’t stop there!

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Bamboo Ecobook

This is the ASUS EcoBook, the world’s first bamboo laptop.

It uses bamboo panels instead of traditional plastic covering. Bamboo is more sustainable and less toxic than plastic, and it makes the laptop look a lot warmer and much more classy! Bamboo is also biodegradable, and each of the bamboo panels can be removed and recycled separately.

In addition to a great green material for casing, the ecobook also features a “PowerGear” button, which will glow green or red depending on the amount of power being used. Great for helping to reduce your power consumption.

The Bamboo ecobook is set for release in 2008, we’ll let you know when you can get your own!

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Bamboo  Keyboard & Mouse

So if you’re not quite in the market for a new (bamboo) laptop, you can at least replace your old keyboard and mouse with some eco-friendly alternatives.

These computer peripherals, from Nigel’s Eco Store, are cased in 100% green bamboo. All unnecessary plastic has been replaced with bamboo, which is biodegradable and can be recycled.

The keyboard sells for £17.99 from Nigel’s Eco Store.

The mouse sells for £14.99, again from Nigel’s Eco Store.

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Bamboo LCD Monitor

The bamboo LCD monitor is styled n the same way as the keyboard and mouse (they look great together!).

It is cased in bamboo, and comes in 15″, 17″ and 19″.

You can read our whole review of the bamboo LCD monitor here

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Bamboo Flash Drives

These eco-friendly flash drives are sold by farfromboring as promotional items.  You can order these in bulk, engrave your company logo, and leave a lasting green message at any kind of promotional event.

These flash drives are cased in panda-friendly bamboo, and are another product that helps to keep toxic plastic out of landfills.

Read our full review.

Check them out at farfromboring.com.

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Bamboo TV 

If you’re in the market for a new TV, or just want it to match all of your other eco-friendly gadgets, there is a bamboo-cased TV as well.

It’s a 19″ widescreen TV, has a resolution of 1440 x 900, a contrast ratio of 700:1, and and 8ms response time.

You can pick this one up for $474.58

(via engadget)

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Well with all these products you can certainly take another look at the traditional plastic coating that seems to plague our electronic devices.

All of the bamboo featured in these products is panda-friendly, meaning that you are not taking any vital food or habitat away from pandas, and that any panda are treated ethically.

Bamboo is a 100% green material. It’s biodegradable, recycleable, and a fantastic alternative to plastic.

Popularity: 27% [?]

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Tags: bamboo, flash drive, keyboard, laptop, mouse, tv