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By Mike Martin, November 12, 2002
"The use of solar panels to power wireless broadband equipment -- radios, antennas and the like -- is especially feasible and cost-effective in areas where traditional electricity is not available," said UCSD researcher Kimberly Mann Bruch.
Broad strokes of sunlight are bringing broadband to remote areas without electricity. University of California, San Diego (UCSD) researchers have established solar-power stations that allow broadband microwave antennas to penetrate otherwise unreachable rural locations.
The team's High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network, or HPWREN, now brings a much wider information superhighway to several Native American learning centers.
"There are thousands of small communities that could access the wireless Internet using the unlicensed microwave spectrum, as does HPWREN," UCSD researcher Kimberly Mann Bruch told NewsFactor. "The use of solar panels to power wireless broadband equipment -- radios, antennas and the like -- is especially feasible and cost-effective in areas where traditional electricity is not available."
The HPWREN stations utilize four 80-watt solar panels capable of generating a peak power of 320 watts. Four independent 94-AH gel cell batteries can support up to four 2.4 GHz radios for five days if the panels should fail.
"The solar panels are connected to a charge controller that disconnects the panels when there is not enough electromotive force to charge the batteries," said Todd Hansen, who designed the HPWREN solar-powered stations. When the panels are disconnected, "the radios and amplifiers receive their power solely from the batteries," he added.
Located in the San Diego County mountains near the La Jolla Native American reservation, the HPWREN solar system diverts most of the energy it collects to the batteries. A small amount of power goes to the radios and amplifiers, Hansen explained. "At this point, the panels are powering the radios and recharging the batteries from the drain of the night before."
The new solar technology will create "smart spaces," said UCLA computer science professor Leonard Kleinrock. "The concept of smart spaces," he told NewsFactor, "is to allow the services and capabilities of ... Internet technology to break loose from its confinement behind the screen on your computer and to appear in our physical world, namely in the walls, chairs, automobiles, desks, eyeglasses, et cetera, of our world."
Kleinrock envisions a future alive with technology. "When I walk into a room, the room will know it is me and can provide services to me in a customized fashion," he said.
Cost is not a concern in areas without electricity, said principal HPWREN investigator Hans-Werner Braun. "We use solar panels where there is no choice, hence cost-effectiveness really becomes irrelevant," Braun told NewsFactor.
Lack of electricity is not the only factor motivating the HPWREN project, he added. Lack of interest from broadband suppliers is an equally important issue. "I could not even get support from broadband providers to connect my house at reasonable (beyond phone modem) speeds," Braun told NewsFactor. "Granted, I don't live in the middle of a city, but there are still plenty of people around."
Commercial applications for solar-powered Wi-Fi broadband may be several years away, which is likely one reason the National Science Foundation financed the HPWREN project when commercial providers could not justify such an investment.
"HPWREN focuses on areas where there are real needs, but not enough of a business case -- yet -- for commercial providers to invest," Braun said. But he foresees developing interest ahead. As a case in point, he pointed out that "latecomer commercial Internet companies took over what the ARPAnet had researched, and NSFNET got to the point that it became commercially interesting."