Solar Powered WiFi

Solar Powered WiFi

Solis Energy has been selling solar powered street lights and other gear for a while; now it is pitching solar powered industrial strength routers for community WiFi. According to Michael Kanellos of CNet, "Several state governments are pushing for increased use of solar energy to cut power consumption and curb greenhouse gases. But green routers have another advantage. Routers, sensors, road signs and other devices that derive their power from the sun or the wind don't need to be hooked up to wires, which often don't exist in remote locations. " A router only needs 24 watts of power, so we wonder if the embodied energy in making such a device makes it kind of silly for community wifi where they can probably plug it in somewhere, or for remote locations where there are not too many people warriding about. But one can think of dense third world communities waiting for their hundred dollar laptop where this might make a lot of sense. ::Cnet via ::earth2tech