TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ELECTRICAL POWER AND ENERGY - Preferred System: The solar cells are situated in a specially designed mounting panel which can be conveniently mounted and adjusted so that the solar cells receive the optimum energy from the sun during the daily rotation of the earth on its axis and during the yearly rotation of the earth around the sun. The mounting panel containing the solar panel can be adjusted about three axes, where the orientation of a second axis with respect to a first axis is always 90 degrees and where, by adjusting the first axis about a third axis, so that the first axis is parallel with the polar axis of the earth, and by rotating the mounting panel about the second axis so that its contained solar panel receives radiation from the Sun at right angles with its plane surface, rotation of the mounting panel about the first axis in a direction opposite to that of the rotation of the Earth about its axis, compensates for the rotation of the Earth on its axis, thus maintaining a constancy in the direction of the radiation received by the solar panel from the Sun. Rotation about each the axis is lockable, and where adjustment can be either purely mechanical or motorized. The solar cells are separate from the appliance, thus allowing charging to be carried out via a variety of different configurations of (i) solar panel, (ii) charging system, and (iii) appliance and where, in the case of an appliance such as a lawnmower, the weight of the operated lawnmower is minimized, and this reduces the power requirement for any particular combination of electric motor and rechargeable battery. Careful design of any appliance which utilizes rechargeable batteries, e.g. the vacuum cleaner, the food mixer, the electric drill, the strimmer, or hedge trimmer, etc., and by careful design of the system of (i) solar cells, (ii) rechargeable batteries, and (iii) associated circuitry, it is possible to standardize the appliances so that one system can be used to charge a range of them.