Brazilian Professor Invents Solar Powered WiFi Access Point
A professor in Brazil is helping to bring solar powered wireless internet to communities in need. The low-cost “access point in a box” he has created needs no internet connection, electricity, or assembly to function. It is being tested on lamp posts in a number of locations. Innovations such as these are becoming more common around the world, and are leveling the economic playing field and creating countless benefits for people who could otherwise not pay for the internet.
For many of us, the internet has become as basic of a utility as electricity and running water. With globalization transforming the economies of nations around the world, the internet can play a significant role in helping people to find jobs, make connections, learn, have fun, and improve their lives. Now thanks to numerous innovations, wireless internet is becoming cheaper and more accessible for everyone in countries like Brazil.
The BBC reports that Professor Marcelo Zuffo of the the University of Sao Paulo is an innovator who has developed a solar-powered access point that needs no further assembly when bought– only a good place to grab some sun. Zuffo explained to the BBC that:
We came up with the idea of taking energy that is most plentiful and cheap, ie the sun, and try and transform this in bits. We have a solar panel, a cheap motorcycle battery and a circuit that is responsible for energy management. We can have up to two days of full internet coverage and our goal is to increase that to 10 days - so that in the rainy season and the winter - you can have the internet for free. The natural plan is to miniaturise the system so that we can save on costs. So by the end you can imagine these wi-fi solar mesh devices being the size of a cellphone or playing card.
Sounds great, right? Zuffo said that one of the primary motivations to start his project in Brazil was to help a school with no electrical outlets to have internet access. Zuffo isn’t the only person, however, to have had this terrific idea.
- The Christian Science Monitor reported over two years ago about a similar idea and invention that was acted upon and designed by the Green Wifi Project for use in Rwanda.
- You can also read a story about the world’s first solar powered wireless internet rickshaw, known as the iTrike.
- A contest sponsored by an organization in India recently asked for inventors to develop a solar-powered wireless internet device. It will be an important component in helping to train the children of sex workers and the victims of the sex trafficking industry for technological jobs. In this way it is hoped that they can escape from such terrible circumstances (a software engineer from Texas won the contest if you are curious).
- Another older story describes a unique system involving motorcycles and solar-powered computers that has allowed doctors in Boston to consult with patients in a remote area of Cambodia via the internet.
I can’t wait to read more of these stories about how solar power and other clean energy innovations are improving the lives of people around the world. What about you?
Photo Credit: edkohler on Flickr under a Creative Commons license
What a creative innovation! My next question is, I wonder if these will make it to the same places that the $100 laptop has been distributed. It would be great to have wifi without need for electricity, but if there’s no computers to use it, then what?
Thanks for all these other examples of innovation. I as a green consultant would love to support companies such as these.
What good is a solar wifi access point if it “needs no Internet access” to set up? Isn’t Internet access kinda the point of wifi?
Not to mention “mesh” systems are incredibly inefficient, slow, and have extremely minimal capacity (for every ‘hop’ from your internet gateway, you typically see a further 50% reduction of speed)
Solar-based 802.11 access points have been around for years and are hardly an innovation. Kits can be purchased cheaply from many WISP distributors.
Actually no, this was in St. Louis Park, MN, USA over 2-3 years ago. It used EXACTLY the same thing. The exact same white wifi boxes with 2x antenna, along with the exact same solar power setup, as pictured were used.
Absolutely amazing! Brilliance. I hope others will follow and these spots start popping up everywhere.
JIff
http://www.privacy.es.tc
Good work, but I think the future for undeveloped rural areas is in cell phone internet access or Wimax.
Thanks BrazillianProfessor for inventing the solar powered wifi access point. We could never of figured that out without you! You’re a legend!
Wireless? Solar panel? Batteries? Internet? Oh wow!
Good Luck to All involved in bringing this to market everywhere. I am all about removing utility expenses. Greatness will come from tiny villages!
Yeah, they’re in SLP, MN, and I’ve recently heard they’re taking them out because they don’t really work that well, (or maybe it’s reliably, who knows) and because the people in the neighborhood hate the look of them and generally have their own broadband lines into their homes anyways.
-r
Hahahaha! This comes at the perfect time because guess what? Me and my buddies have been “inventing” this exact same device for years! We “invented” it by reading plans that have been “invented” for years before and “bought” it from this “internet” that was “invented” 30 years ago!
Seriously though, kits have been available to do this for years. Me and my buddies built a system like this from scratch so that the one of us that had broadband could share with the rest of us. This isnt an invention unless you have absolutely no clue about the current state of homebrew network hackers. This is very old news to most homebrew peeps regardless.
You can build a microwave radio antenna from a pie pan, bronze tubing, a regular old Linksys router, a small solar panel and a bit of soldering.
Now, lets wait for the next important article from Digg telling us all about this new invention called “lolcats” or “World of Warcraft” or some other internet meme that has existed for at least 6 years but just now reached the middle-aged bloggers who think theyre in-the-know.
This is the cancer that is killing the internet.
Oh by the way…
Just in case you need a little more proof, heres some plans that have been posted for about 8 years and guess what? A highschool kid made them.
http://www.saunalahti.fi/elepal/antenna1.html
Now go ride a bike to work and write an article on Digg explaining how you invented it. And while youre doing it, try not to make it so obvious that youre all middle-aged coffee-house techies who learn “everything they know” by reading every half-baked, uninformed, knee-jerk blog post made by anyone claiming to be an “expert” on the industry.
Im sure I’ll see one of you in Starbucks telling me all about “the laptop wars” and how youre in on the ground level. Yeah, sell me some motivational tapes you tools.