Recently I had the opportunity to go to the Outdoor Retailer Summer show in Salt Lake City, Utah, where manufacturers of all things outdoor, from gizmos and gadgets to potentially life-saving devices, show off their current and future wares. Of the more than 1,000 exhibitors, a number were solar manufacturers and wholesalers looking to meet the needs of outdoor adventurers with portable solar-powered products. I had a chance to talk with a few of the companies to learn more about how they anticipate meeting people’s needs with their products. Some of these products are already available now; some won’t be available until later this year or next.

The manufacturers touted all sorts of photovoltaic doodads, including everything from the whimsical PV lightup lawn turtle to rollable PV chargers capable of running a laptop. While some chargers can be directly connected to devices, others include batteries and inverters allowing for more flexibility and for helping power devices when there’s no sun. There was even a PV UFO (I didn’t get to take a ride in it though.)

One company, PowerFilm, Inc. showed off a variety of its thin-film PV panels, most of which are rollable or foldable and have been used by the military. The company also sells its modules to other companies like Brunton, which rebrands and sells PowerFilm PV devices. At the show, I had a chance to pick them up. They’re amazingly light and feel rugged. Some were covered in flexible plastic, making them rollable, while others were attached to fabric making them foldable.

These are the type of panels that would be ideal to integrate into a hiker’s backpack, while adding little weight and a lot of opportunities for keeping your devices going. PowerFilm Vice President of Manufacturing Steve Martens told me the company has talked with many pack manufacturers about incorporating their modules into backpacks.

A British-based company, Mango International, had a number of useful PV products for the outdoors. They were showing off their powertraveller line of PV products and power storage devices. Among them, the powermonkey-explorer has a ruggedized clam-shell silicon PV panel attached to a dedicated battery backup. It can be used to charge devices like iPods, cell phones, and more. The company also offers the solargorilla PV, a larger ruggedized clam-shell PV module, which can be used to power a laptop.

Solarrific, a New York-based company, had a plethora of PV-powered devices ranging from PV-chargers for batteries (great for keeping your power hungry camera’s extra batteries charged), cell phones and car battery chargers to the more whimsical, like the aforementioned PV-powered lawn turtle. I talked with Solarrific president Grace King, who told me most the company’s products are produced in China.