Would a solar panel Incorporated into a laptop lid work?

[russ]

You know.... you guys are being silly but... it would be kind of nice to have a solar panel on it if it would at least make the battery last longer. You guys always seem to think we need to address the entire energy needs. Well I understand why, you wouldn't put only 3 gallons of gas in your car if the trip requires 5. But what I'm getting at is if you give me 1 gallon, I only need to buy 4.

How about if it puts in 0.01 gallons, costs a lot and adds size plus weight to the laptop?

A losing proposition.

[Shmel]

This would not be useful to run a laptop, but could be useful to charge it. My netbook is of most of the time. A 5 watts solar panel could charge its 30Wh battery in a day or two even under ambient light.

[billvon]

This would not be useful to run a laptop, but could be useful to charge it. My netbook is of most of the time. A 5 watts solar panel could charge its 30Wh battery in a day or two even under ambient light.

Warning - many devices (laptops/tablets) will not charge unless adequate power is available. The battery connects, voltage drops, it hits the low voltage limit, battery disconnects etc and no charging occurs. With my laptop I had to provide at least 15 watts to be able to charge it (i.e. 16 volts at ~1amp)