Eco Factor: Radio stations powered by solar energy.
Residents in certain remote areas of Africa still lack access to grid electricity, and instant communication is still a distant dream for them. Orange Guinea Conakry and Ericsson have now teamed up to change the conditions of people living in these areas. Both companies are planning to deploy over a hundred base stations that will be completely off-grid and depend on the power of the sun along with a diesel generator to act as a backup.
These base stations will connect remote parts of Africa to the world so that they can call their relatives in an instant. Apart from increasing Orange’s cellphone coverage in both rural and urban areas, these towers will help reduce carbon emissions considerably. Orange is planning to have more than 1000 solar-powered base stations in its African operations by the end of this year.
The Dark Side:
A solar-powered base station in places where there is no electricity is great only for urban visitors. However, with no cheap solar cellphones currently being developed, these towers would just be a piece of future technology for people living in remote areas, which they can just see and hope.
Via: Coolest-Gadgets
