Lumin gives Boulder solar-powered WiFi

Lumin Innovative Products recently deployed its first solar-powered WiFi access points at the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, Colorado, apparently making it the first city in the US to have a solar-powered WiFi network.  The first-generation LightWave AP-1000 solar-powered access point comes in both single and dual models and takes five hours of direct sunlight to fully charge, after which it'll pump out the WiFi goodness for up to 72 hours.  But while Boulder's the first place to get it, Lumin thinks the real appeal for the technology is in more remote locations or during emergencies when the power's out.

[Via WiFi Networking News]

[THomas Lorn @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM]

Thats Super ! If the price is right it could be the coolest thing to extend your wireless system. I suppose the router can be set to repeater mode and there you have it , another 150 feet of wifi godness ! Please don�t make it too expensive !

[cheeze @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM]

ok, so it's powered by the sun, but where's the uplink?

a wireless connection that connects to nothing is pretty useless.

What they really need is decent mesh networking, and then each client and access point would also become a repeater.

[lupinstel @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM]

If the power is out not to many things that use Wi-fi will be working, at least not for long.

[pete @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM]

Was anybody else's first impression that the boulder in the picture was the actual recipient of Lumin's solar-powered wifi?

[Shane @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM]

RTFA:

The decision to bring free Wi-Fi to Pearl Street, and to make that the first solar-powered wireless network in the country...

This is awesome, it will be nice to go back to school in a week and have Pearl Street lathered in free WiFi goodness. :)

[Shane @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM]

@#4 (Pete):

Hehe..well I think I know where that picture was taken and if I am correct, that is nowhere near Pearl St. Mall. Oh well.

[RexStJames @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM]

I'm confused. What is this for? If it is designed to work during a power outage, then it will have very limited usefulness because most computers require power. Laptops get maybe 4 hours of battery life. Is this designed for those 4 hours?
If this is designed for remote locations - where a power outlet isn't available - then how are you going to get Internet access through it? A solar-powered satellite dish?
As previous commenters have said, this really only makes sense if it's a repeater to extend the range of an existing network.

[landwomble @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM]

boulder, colorado? doesn't the idea of wifi-enabled clowns in storm drains freak anyone else out?

[aprodite @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM]

#7 I've got a 12v DC adaptor for my laptop for use in the car, you can have a week long power cut for all I care, and I'll still have my iBook running (as long as I have petrol of course) so there are still advantages to this.

[nullsmack @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM]

A decent size solar panel could probably run a laptop too. The wifi node doesn't have to provide a connection to the internet either. I wouldn't be half surprised to see wifi used as a sort of presence IM/file transfer or even setup like an old school bbs eventually. Nintendo already has something of the IM idea in their DS handheld with pictochat.
BBS wouldn't be all that hard to do.. slap a portal page together, phpbb, maybe ftp and a hdd, solar panel, battery and find some public-type place you can get someone to let you set it up OR somewhere you can hide it.

[Steamboat Real Estate @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM]

Way to go Boulder, at the forefront without being quite as quirky as usual. Providing uptime when the power is out isn't the point especially in Boulder. Colorado passed an initiative last year requiring 10% of electricity to be generated by alternative means by something like 2010 with incentives for solar so this is a nice symbolic kick in the pants for that effort.

The Steamboat Ski area in Steamboat Springs put in a wind powered triple chairlift last season as a replacement for an older double lift. It is not directly powered by wind or it would be hard to get to the goods during a good long steady powder dump or on sunny calm days. It buys it's electricity at the rate for wind generated power thus it has the same effect in the larger scheme of things by creating demand for solar power.

I'm no environmentalist but I think it is foolish that we don't invest more in alternative energy on all sort of economic, political and environmental levels

[Steamboat Springs Colorado @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM]

Big Head Todd and the Monsters record their music in a Solar powered studio near Steamboat Springs Colorado. Many homes and cabins in the Steamboat area are powered by Solar since it would be impractical to run power lines out to them and generator noise kind of kills the mountain solitude thing.

Big head Todd has enjoyed strong national success for several years now but used to play parties and bars in Boulder while I was in school their at CU long long ago. They recently played a free concert on headwall at the base of the Steamboat ski area and it was excellent.

http://steamboat-springs.blogspot.com/2005/07/steamboat-springs-big-head-todd.html

[Nootebook Review Blog @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM]

can it connect to my wifi nootebook..?