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I have found that many people seem to forget you need more than just food to survive a disaster. Although food could arguably be the most important item, I think it is vital to also have other emergency supplies such as water, shelter, and power.

Yes, power. You may be asking yourselves, how can we have power when the electricity is almost certain to be shut off during an emergency. The answer lies in a cool technology called personal solar power.

One company doing a great job of making this unique product easy to understand and affordable is Goal Zero.  Goal Zero has made portable solar devices that can power something as small as an ipod to something as large as a refrigerator. The units are small starting at something you could put in your backpack up to something akin to a small generator.

To get a good understanding of solar technology, Goal Zero has a great Learning Page that will give you the basics. Go here.

The best part of solar power is it’s free and pretty accessible. All you need is a solar panel and power pack to store that free sunlight power. To get started with solar power, Goal Zero has kits starting at about $130.00.

I think one of these devices is not only smart to have in case of emergency but also just to have around in case the power goes out. We’ll be keeping our eye on this industry and would love to hear your comments on how well these devices work.