The Lenovo Solar PC Concept feels like a device whose time has come

Yahoo

02-03-2025

You might be surprised to learn that the first laptop with built-in solar panels is nearly 15 years old. But to me, the bigger shock is that with all the recent advancements in photovoltaic cells, manufacturers haven't revisited this idea more often. But at MWC 2025, Lenovo is changing that with its Yoga Solar PC Concept.
Weighing 2.6 pounds and measuring less than 0.6 inches thick, the Yoga Solar PC Concept is essentially the same size as a standard 14-inch clamshell. And because its underlying design isn't all that different from Lenovo's standard Yoga family, it doesn't skimp on specs either. It features an OLED display, up to 32GB of RAM, a decent-sized 50.2 WHr battery and even a 2MP IR webcam for use with Windows Hello.
However, all those components aren't nearly as important as the solar cells embedded in its lid. Lenovo says the panels use Back Contact Cell technology so that its mounting brackets and gridlines can be placed on the rear of the cells. This allows the panels to offer up to 24 percent solar energy conversion, which is pretty good as that matches the efficiency you get from many high-end home solar systems. Furthermore, the PC also supports Dynamic Solar Tracking to automatically adjust the cells' settings to maximize the amount of energy they can gather.
Lenovo Yoga Solar PC Concept hands-on photo
Lenovo says this means the Yoga Solar PC can generate enough juice to play an hour of videos after only 20 minutes in the sun. But what might be more impressive is that even when the laptop is indoors, it can still harvest power from as little as 0.3 watts of light to help top off its battery. Finally, to help you understand how much power it's gathering, Lenovo created a bespoke app to track how much light the panels absorb.
Unfortunately, Lenovo doesn't have any plans to turn this concept into a full commercial device. But after playing around with it, I was pleasantly surprised to see how solid and sturdy its chassis felt. Unlike a lot of prototype devices, the Yoga Solar PC Concept doesn't feel like that much of a stretch technologically compared to other notebooks on sale today. Its PV cells sit safely behind a sheet of glass (or possibly plastic, Lenovo wouldn't confirm which one) while also adding a bit of distinctive visual flair.
However, the biggest hurdle (and possibly a big reason why we haven't seen more laptops like this) is that for people who want to use solar panels to charge their devices, it's probably easier and more versatile to rely on a standalone solar array instead of something built-in to the gadget itself. Regardless, Lenovo's Yoga Solar PC is a surprisingly polished concept that I'd love to see get more attention in the future.