Solar, peddle-powered Wi-Fi phones
Here is an inspiring story of how a handful of villages in western Uganda, which have never had phones before, are now being equipped with Wi-Fi-based wireless VoIP phone systems that… get this… are powered by a combination of solar panels and stationary bicycle peddling.
“Complete with 70-watt solar panels and a bicycle generator — which can provide power in the event of no sunlight — each installation costs only $1,800, including the outdoor Wi-Fi 802.11b antenna,” according to Wired.com. “Calls between the villages are routed by the hub, and cost nothing — like dialing another room from a hotel PBX… Calls destinated for outside the village network go over a satellite link between the hub and the main Ugandan telephone exchange.”
The company — actually, it’s a non-profit organization — that put the system together is called Inveneo Inc., which was created to “strengthen communities, bridge families and save lives in remote villages through information and communication technology.”
Tyler Hamilton is senior energy reporter and columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the cleantech market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper. Tyler can be reached at tyler@cleanbreak.ca