Having just gone through four days without power, heat and water thanks to Hurricane Sandy, I can’t express how happy I was to see the latest gadget delivered to my home. Several months ago I backed the Fenix ReadySet Solar Kit on Kickstarter with a $199 pledge and the device is here. That’s good timing [...]

We’re excited to announce that we have launched our online community for makers and hackers on Instructables.com. Thanks to the overwhelming support from our backers on Kickstarter, we’ve been able to work with Instructables to not only create this platform but also design an “Off the Grid” Contest to support development of rural and mobile power sources, green charging, [...]

Today, I want to talk about Fenix International, the maker of the Fenix ReadySet Solar Kit. I have travelled internationally and seen firsthand the dire need for a reliable power source by millions of people in third-world countries. At the same time, I have often been surprised to notice how many people live in poverty [...]

Last week, a peculiar little box called ReadySet blew up on Kickstarter. Designed to provide electricity in the field and off the grid, ReadySet is a portable power station that can be charged via solar panels and other clean energy sources. It blasted past its fundraising goal in just a day, but while it’s new [...]

If you’ve been wondering how you can get your hands on one of Fenix International’s portable off-grid battery and solar kits — previously only available to African entrepreneurs — ponder no longer. The San Francisco-based startup has just launched a Kickstarter campaign to sell their battery and solar kits in the U.S. For a $199 [...]

Spend 20 minutes researching off-grid power solutions in the developing world and you’ll come up with dozens, if not hundreds, of solar-powered charging devices. The problem is getting these solutions to scale. The traditional model, where nonprofits give away solar chargers, lanterns, LED lights, and other devices, probably can’t revolutionize the way the developing world [...]

Congrats to our friends over at Grameen who are featured in this article by Deobrah Bassett for Huffington Post! Fenix is excited to be supplying Grameen CKWs with ReadySet kits to charge smartphones. [Link to Grameen Blog Post] In Uganda, smartphones are being used to help farmers get access to more agricultural information, through conversation with one another and [...]

By Rob Goodier - One of the problems facing developing countries is that people in rural communities tend to walk around with dead cell phones. That is because mobile devices are cheaper than ever, but power plants are still expensive. But as a work-around in off-the-grid communities, phone owners have learned to run charge cords off of used car batteries.