I've ben doing a lot of research on the whole solar thing. Most of those small portable solar panels aren't enough to even power a laptop (that's what 90% of the reviews said- don't waste your money unless you want it just to charge your cellphone. maybe a laptop. ) A huge panel (of 120 watts) with a charge regulator and deep cycle marine battery (total 6-7 hundred bucks) should keep the battery charged that could power some lights and chargers for phones, laptops, etc. To run an amplifier (for more than an hour or so for the whole week) or airconditioner would require a few marine batteries in a series with multiple 6 foot panels (like 3-6). The panels I found (for 500 each) charged at a rate of 3-5 amps an hour. One marine battery holds about 120 to 200 amps. It would take one panel over thirty hours of solid daylight to charge up that battery. Probably more. You figure a small fan uses an amp an hour. Add a couple small lights and a few other appliances and you would easily use over 10 amps per day. For sound systems you'd probably suck quite a bit of amperage.

For my own personal needs I'm just buying a deep cycle marine battery (120 amps) and bringing it fully charged to the playa. This will give me about twenty amps per day. That should let us have a swamp cooler while we sleep and some lights in the van when we need them. THIS BATTERY COSTS 60 BUCKS AT Costco (I don't necessarily like to support Costco) Solar would be awesome for a more permanent set-up, personally speaking- but if Max is down with trying something I'd be happy to help out with set-up. I'd like to see how it would work. Plus I want hear some of those sicky beats I hear Max throw down. Oh What?...