True story - mountain climbers in Everest use solar battery chargers to keep their cellphones charged up so they can phone home from base camp.

"The sun was so bright at 18,000 feet that it wasn't a problem at all,"

Sean Burch, who climbed Everest last year, used solar panels to charge his gear so he didn't have to lug hundred-pound batteries.

Solar battery chargers can also be used to power up torches, cameras and navigation gear.

The one question is - it might be good to keep a cellphone charged for emergencies, but do you really want to 'keep in touch.' After all, that's half the attraction of the great outdoors - getting away from it all.

That said, there are some really cool gizmos and gadgets out there, and some very novel ways of keeping them juiced.

Sailors with their own solar panels and wind mills (figures) use renewable energy to keep themselves charged up in the middle of the ocean.

This is an extremely useful feature as yachts sometimes spend months before they can plug into another power source or get diesel for a generator.

This also is in keeping with the 'work with the elements' aspect of yachting. Recently, innovations look to take this to a whole new level. Solar powered 'yachts' go far beyond the battery charging capabilities of previous solar panels.

This project by Finnish company NAPS Systems dramatically illustrates the power of solar energy to make a difference at the edges of technology.

This company has designed solar powered fridges to transport vaccines by camel back. The CFS49IS was designed to solve the problem of transporting vaccines for long distances through rugged territory. The vaccines had to be kept cool. And yes, the CFS stands for Camel Fridge System.

An interesting thing to not is that the CFS is not new. It was actually designed in 1980. So while solar energy is getting more mainstream attention now, it has been quietly making a difference for more than two decades. Sometimes by camel back.