This one doesn’t relate to the every day user but still is pretty cool. SolarNetOne utilizes solar-power, long distance wireless networking, and Ubuntu to literally make a wireless hotspot anywhere the sun shines. Their kit comes with solar panels, batteries, a server and all necessary routing paraphernalia, and workstations withinput devices and monitors, literally everything you need. Here’s a handy diagram out of Martin Streicher’s article SolarNetOne: Solar-powered networking for anyone (linked below), dotted lines are the flow of electricity, solid lines are internet signal:

As you can see this is a very scalable system, listed capacity is 50 workstations pulling a mere 12.5 watts each while in use (8 of those watts are in the monitor).The cost for the kit is listed at $15k, but there’s no mention of how many workstations are provided for the price. Another nice thing about this system is the use of off the shelf parts in the server system so if something should happen it is easily and cheaply replaceable.

So who is this aimed for you might ask. I certainly don’t need a personal solar powered hotspot. This one might surprise you, developing nations. Streicher’s article lists 77% of the world as not having access to the internet and names weak or non-existent power grids as one of the main reasons why this might be the case. Also lets face it, in North America, Western Europe, and several places in Asia fiber optics and wireless internet signal are common, but this is not the case in the rest of the world. In places like that even if you could get consistent power to your computer you aren’t going the have the physical ability to connect to the rest of the world. One last and very important thing that Streicher points out is that in Africa for instance if there’s a civil war or a natural disaster, times when internet access could actually save lives by directing rescue efforts to those in need, would be the time that any access to power or internet would be most likely to be cut.

Because of all these reasons and more Scott Johnson (founder and lead engineer of SolarNetOne) decided to put together a kit that could circumvent all of these potential problems and still provide the user with high up-time, easy to maintain, internet access. In fact cleaning of the solar panels and battery maintenance are the only physical maintenance listed as necessary to maintain these systems. Part of the ease of maintenance came with the selection of the Ubuntu operating system (version 8.04 for those who care). The included Aptitude software management software makes it easy for on-site administrators to keep the system updated, preventing costly maintenance visits. Also Linux’s built is security and lack of virus danger makes for very effective equipment even if the workstation users aren’t experienced in all the ways that malware distributors try and get their software onto user’s computers.

All of these great decisions have lead to very high satisfaction in the companies first (and at time of writing only) 5 installs. Including the first one at Katsina State University in Nigeria were the biggest problem was apparently shipping the power hardware through Germany. SolarNetOne is apparently already in talks with 10 more possible deployment sites in both non-profit and for-profit situations.

Links for more info

Martin Streicher’s article: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-solarnetone/?ca=dgr-lnxw03SolarNetOnedth-l&S_TACT=105AGX59&S_CMP=grlnxw03

SolarNetOne’s website: http://gnuveau.net/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi

africa, hotspot, internet, Linux, Nigeria, solar, SolarNetOne, Ubuntu, wireless Hide