The Idea - Coming Together

My idea started out fairly simple, to have some sort of power generation that was portable enough to sit on the kayak and a small battery pack as back-up for when the sun disappeared behind some clouds for the day.

Any kind of turbine or bladed power generation was quickly ruled out, I really didn't want to add much drag to my kayak and besides that, a wind turbine mounted to the front of my kayak didn't sound all that visually appealing.

Combustion of any kind was also scratched off the list. While the idea of a little steam engine generator on the back of my kayak was an interesting thought, I did NOT like the thought of a little coal fire in my kayak. In any case, combustion generation tends to be loud and loud doesn't mix well with a kayak gliding silently through the reeds on a glassy lake.

The only other option I could think of was solar. It's quiet, it can be very low profile so as to not add much drag, and it's light. The only slight downside is that it needs sunlight to function, however, most days that I'm out kayaking it'll probably be sunny.

Boring Solar Panels

Once I decided upon solar as my source of power generation I needed some way to mount the solar panels or cells to my kayak. Now if this was a boring (or efficient or practical) project I would just buy a pre-made solar panel and bungee it to the kayak deck. Done. Instead, I let my imagination run wild. The result was certainly not boring. Although sometimes I do question exactly how practical this project is before reminding myself that this isn't a practical project, this is a fun project.