SAN DIEGO — The Army is developing solar panel technology to power surveillance cameras on rooftops in Iraq.
The rucksack portable power system uses the sun’s rays to charge the batteries, said Ken Zemach, director of business development with Lion Cells. Solar energy relieves soldiers from having to carry heavy loads of batteries up to rooftops during long surveillance missions, he noted.
The solar panel was developed by the Army Rapid Equipping Force and the Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Command. It was originally created for troops in Afghanistan who were usually at the top of a mountain or a hill and remained in remote areas for long periods of time, Zemach explained.
In Iraq’s Anbar province, the rooftops were “too dangerous to put a guy on,” Zemach said, because it exposed soldiers to enemy snipers. “We had this high threat area where we needed surveillance cameras, and batteries weren’t quite cutting it because you have to go back and change them,” Zemach told National Defense. “And you would get shot” while changing batteries, he said. “I’m not exaggerating.”
The rucksack power system uses a solar panel and a military battery, usually a BB-2590 lithium ion rechargeable.
The solar panel soaks up the sun during the day, enough to both charge the camera battery and the sensor, Zemach said.
At night the battery is used up while it powers the sensor for the next 12 to 18 hours, he explained. The system runs for 24 hours.
A lighter battery load is an added advantage for the soldier. Surveillance cameras in Anbar province used to run on two BA-5590 disposable batteries each day, which weighed a total of 5 pounds. The rucksack system weighs about 15 to 20 pounds, including the batteries, and can run for years in one location, Zemach said.
Solar panels are used on observation posts in Afghanistan, where the weight savings is even more important. “You are either carrying batteries up and down every day or you use the solar panels. Now you can keep all your batteries up and running and you just completely reduced 30 percent of the load,” Zemach asserted.
In Iraq, the money they saved in disposable batteries paid for the $300,000 that it cost to get these modifications, he said.
A prototype, built by Protonics Inc., was approved in late April for production, he said.
The Army and Marine Corps have shown interest in using the rucksack system to power sensors and radios.
“I’ve gotten e-mails from other guys saying ‘hey is there some way we can power up our sensors or our radio full time off of solar?’” Zemach noted.
“You could use the solar charger to charge your radio and you could swap the batteries out. Or you could run these cables straight in … and if you get sun, you could run your radios 24/7,” Zemach said.
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