Doing ethnographic fieldwork in a remote location? You need the Powerfilm AA Solar Charger (Coming Soon)

When I began my PhD at Peking University, my initial research topic was not about the meihuaquan martial arts traditions of north China. Rather, it was about developing sustainable tourism in the vicinity of Jiuzhaigou national park in Sichuan province, China. I worked as the primary researcher for Canadian economics professor and made several preliminary fieldwork trips to Tibetan villages in the region. In order to prepare for a year-long stay in these villages, many of had unreliable electricity, I decided that all my gear needed to be solar powered.

PowerFilm offered me a decent discount on two solar panels which I purchased and used fairly extensively during fieldwork. Although we were forced to give up our sustainable tourism project, I continued to use the solar panels occasionally during research projects in north China. They performed incredibly well. Though several years have passed since I relied on these panels to charge AA batteries and larger storage batteries for my laptop computer, I thought its time to dust off the photos and write something.

In the coming weeks, I’ll complete my review and post it here.