These Portable Solar Panels Gave Us The Best Power Boosts, Rain or Shine

With the growth of portable power stations as solar generators in the last decade, interest and competition has led to huge improvements in solar panel performance. When I began playing around with them back in the late ‘90s, they were little more than a novelty, with low wattage that limited their utility. In 2025, they can theoretically draw and store enough energy to charge a power station in a few hours, giving you a true solar generator.

Once you’ve harnessed that energy, you can use it to power whatever you want. While they generally fall short of the large, permanently installed panels that homeowners use for power, they can still deliver ample power to a wide range of devices and setups. That may mean topping up phones and gear at a campsite, powering the appliances in an RV, or even storing it for a modest home backup in an emergency. I recently tested a set of highly rated models from the most trusted brands in the field to find the best portable solar panels you can buy right now.

The Expert: I’ve been using solar gear for 30 years, and have spent the past decade reviewing panels and power stations for publications like Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, U.S. News and World Report, and more. I’ve relied on solar panels and equipment to power campsites, RVs and van conversions, home emergency backup systems, and in a variety of situations when off-grid power solutions are a must.

Wattage and Efficiency

First and foremost, if a solar panel doesn’t deliver the wattage you need, then it’s not much use to you. A solar panel’s charging capacity, which we casually refer to as wattage (W), indicates the maximum amount of electrical power it can produce from the solar energy it absorbs in an hour. Though all brands advertise panels based on their maximum capacity, the amount of power you can get out of your panels at any given time will depend on a number of factors, including how you position your panel and environmental factors like cloud cover.

While there are “mini” handheld solar panels that can charge a small device like a phone, I generally recommend focusing on large, foldable panels that are made to pair with a portable power station or plug into a controller that can connect directly to a vehicle or home electrical system. Generally speaking, these panels start at 100 watts and go up from there. To provide continuous power to an array of devices, especially large appliances, you may need to grab several hundred watts per hour. That means you’ll need either a high-yield panel or several small ones chained together.

For example, if you’re car camping or traveling with a small van setup, a single 100- or 200-watt panel may give you enough power to charge a few devices and maybe keep low-draw items like a string of lights or a portable refrigerator going. If you’re supplying power to a larger van or RV with lots of lights or small electronics, such as a coffee maker or TV, you will need substantially more solar capture capacity–call it 200 to 400 watts. Finally, if you need a solar generator to create a comfortable off-grid living space with uninterrupted power or use a high-draw appliance like an air conditioner, aim for 600-800 watts.

In addition to maximum solar capture, you should take a look at a panel’s energy conversion efficiency, which measures how much of the sunlight that hits the panel gets converted into usable electricity. I recommend looking for portable panels that can deliver 22-percent efficiency or higher. (There are a lot of cheap panels out there: A sub-20 percent efficiency rate should be a big red flag.) A few percentage points might not seem like much, but it may be the difference between getting the power you need before the sun sets, or in less than ideal weather.

Portability

Some portable solar panels are more mobile than others. The panels that can produce the amount of electricity that you need to power many devices and/or appliances are generally quite large–at least a few feet across and a foot or two high: A larger panel allows you to absorb more energy.

Luckily, all of these panels have the ability to fold up into a more compact size that’s relatively easy to carry and store. They’re also thin and relatively light, and a good model will have a handle or grips that help you move it around between uses. As an example, the Bluetti 200W panel is 6 feet wide when deployed, but folds down to roughly the size of a pizza box, making it much easier to move and pack. My largest recommendation, EcoFlow’s 400W panel, folds down to a little over twice that size, but is still relatively easy to move thanks to a thin design and briefcase-style handle.

Durability

Solar panels have to be able to take a beating. They often get banged up in transit, you’re constantly opening and closing them, and they need to be able to withstand long days sitting out in rain and/or bright sunlight for hours or even days on end. Heavier high-wattage panels tend to be a little more fragile than foldable and/or flexible panels. The further off the beaten path they need to travel, the more important it is to sacrifice wattage for durability.

I’ve tested dozens of portable solar panels over the past five years. From 2021-2024, I lived and worked out of a converted van, and used a portable solar generator to power all of my appliances and electronics as I drove all over the continent.

For this round of solar panel testing, I spent the past two months using eight new panels from brands I’ve tested and trust, and found five options that I strongly recommend, including the Bluetti 200W and the EcoFlow NextGen 220W. Each one was tested in real-world conditions, either on the road or camping, in tandem with many power stations across many brands and sizes. I tried them in both direct sun and partial cloud conditions, judged their portability, and considered any unique design elements.

In addition, I’ve added two panels that I’ve tested in the past and still recommend. I didn’t test either the Jackery SolarSaga 100W and BougeRV Arch 200W in the past few months, but I have used both extensively and feel they offer valuable alternatives to my latest test picks.

Thanks to all of this rigorous testing—I tend to be pretty hard on my gear—you can rest assured that these are the best portable solar panels you can get right now.