A university in Scotland has plans to install small solar panels atop street lights. The panels would collect energy during the day, store it in some sort of battery, and then release the energy at night to provide lighting. No big deal, except for the fact that the university also envisions using the solar panels to power Wi-Fi equipment that would provide public wireless access. I imagine the lighting would rely on LEDs, but really there are not many details from the report other than a stated goal of having the product market-ready by the end of this year.

The idea of using solar to power Wi-Fi equipment is nothing new. I remember speaking with an engineer at Nortel Networks a little over a year ago about using small, cheap, off-the-shelf solar cells and rechargeable batteries to supply 10 watts of required power to Wi-Fi mesh equipment (radio receivers), which could be installed on hydro poles, the sides of buildings and yes, even street lights. This engineer said using solar would be particularly attractive in developing countries where communities without telecommunications or electricity infrastructure could set up community wireless mesh networks, providing broadband — voice, video, data — access that’s powered by solar.

Frankly, I think a company like Carmanah should get together with Nortel to explore this. I can imagine Carmanah’s solar-LED lit bus shelters or transit stops doubling as Wi-Fi receivers as part of municipal-owned, citywide wireless networks, such as those in the works in Philadelphia and New Orleans. Fact is, bus stops are ideally spread out in most cities, and I’m guessing most people would love to check e-mail while waiting for the bus.

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