Solar Powered WiFi
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 08.28.07
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
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I've noticed that almost all of my networking equipment (modem, router, Vonage box and Slingbox) take 12V DC power and have thought that it would be better to simply hook up a solar panel and a battery to them and take them off the grid entirely. Not only would they work when the power is out, but I'd eliminate the power bricks.
Combine this with an inverter hooked up to my fridge and I'd be safe against power outages and reduce my electrical use.
As more and more mobile devices are becoming WiFi capable, having an off-the-grid connection to the internet makes a lot of sense.
Picture how useful these would have been in NOLA 2 years ago, allowing people to get information about what was happening, and where they should have been going. Also, can you imagine the live streaming videos?
But then I keep wondering why there is not solar or wind power on the top of every street light in the country, so we can see in the case of a disaster.