Three billion people living in developing nations, about 42% of the population, are under the age of 15. The Green Wi-Fi project has the goal of bringing internet access to these children, and doing it in a way that makes sense for a developing country.

Unlike developed nations, many of the places where this technology was designed to be deployed lack electricity, so the Green Wi-Fi project designed a self-contained unit consisting of a solar panel, charge controller and battery for power, and a modified Linksys WRT54GL wireless router with a high gain external omni-directional antenna for the internet access part. These boxes form the nodes of a self-healing mesh network. Connect one or more of them to the internet somehow (often via a cellular modem) and you can share that connection across the entire mesh. Since the boxes need no external power, they can be placed on rooftops anywhere to build up the mesh.

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While I was out the other day I came across a couple of solutions for charging portable devices, like iPods & media players, iPhones and other mobile phones, GPS navigation units or portable gaming devices using the energy of the sun. The two models I saw in the store were the Solio Universal Hybrid Solar Charger and the Solio H1000 Hybrid Battery Charger.

Of the two, the H1000 was perhaps the most appealing to me, simply because I’m not such a big fan of the fan out operation on the other model. Both have an internal battery that is charged by the solar panel, and can then be used to charge your external device. That means you can leave the charger in a sunny place all day, and then top up your phone from it overnight. And using solar power instead of leaving the phone’s AC charger plugged in all day, reduces the phantom power drain too (unplugging that AC adapter when you’re not using will help there too).

In addition to the Solio portable chargers, there are also some other options out there like the SolarStyle SC002 or the iceTECH Solar i101 for those on tighter budgets. Be sure to check that the charger you select is compatible with your devices though before buying.

PolyFuel, a Mountain View, California company, announced this week that it has integrated its methanol fuel cell technology into a Lenovo Thinkpad T40 laptop computer. According to the company’s press release:

In PolyFuel’s prototype, the power supply features a detachable fuel cartridge – about the size of a deck of cards – that can be swapped out while the computer continues to run. Long-distance travelers, or others needing continuous, unconnected, easily portable power for their notebooks, would simply carry spare cartridges in their pocket or purse – a someday common practice that has already been approved for commercial aircraft by the various regulatory bodies around the world.

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