About 10 years ago when Maplin opened a local store, I picked up some solar PV panels, a 40Ah sealed lead-acid (SLA) battery and a charge regulator on special. For the past 10 years these panels have been sitting in a window in my guest room doing nothing but keeping my battery nicely charged.

Finally, I’ve put this setup to some better use. I’m experimenting with the idea of keeping a Raspberry Pi powered 24/7 using nothing but PV panels and a battery. I’m based in Galway, Ireland (53N, 9W) and here we don’t get too much direct sun (clouds keep getting in the way :)… so this goal isn’t completely trivial.

Full article here:
Solar Pi (Joe Desbonnet’s web log)