GLOBAL – Since we first talked about the Nokia Solar Charging experiment back in June, several global trekkers have been exploring the use of a solar powered mobile phone. Over the course of the summer, a few intrepid travelers have been combing the planet to find out about the feasibility and usefulness of a phone that is powered by the sun.
From the Northern most reaches of the planet, Joel has reported how the Lapland summer has given him mixed results using a solar mobile. Despite the fact that from June to mid-August the sun never sets, it seems that cloudy days have hampered his ability to get a decent charge on his phone.
Despite the fact that he had the phone exposed to the polar days, Joel was able to only harvest enough energy on most days to do 12 hours of standby.
Baltic Sea beacons. Switching gears and coming down in latitude dramatically, the Baltic sea is the home to another adventurer tries to see if warmer temperatures and exposure to the sun aboard a ship can make any difference in charging capability. Looking at the analysis, it appears that the results are a little better, but not dramatic.
The test phone, dubbed the Lokki, is a modified Nokia C1, which doesn’t require too much power. On the first day in the Baltic, the Lokki harvested 137 mAh of energy, which is enough for 82 minutes of talk time and 69 hours standby. The solar phone might not be sufficient for a replacement phone for ship use, but it’s getting some honorable charging in on the open sea.
Dissecting Lokki. What makes a solar phone tick and how was the pilot project built out? Dig in to see what materials make Lokki a good working model to see how a solar phone might be built in the future. In this case, Lokki is a Nokia C1 modified with a battery cover that can harvest energy from the sun and provider graphical feedback on diagnostics.
Kenya calls. An interesting perspective comes to us from Kenya where Amos talks about Kenya and the reason it’s perfect for a solar mobile solution. With only 15% of Kenyans having access to electricity, Kenya is fertile ground to help power the 16.5 million mobile user’s need to connect. Amos has experienced good charging conditions via the sun, with decent figures giving enough charge to make calls and even listen to the radio.
As you can see, the Nokia Solar project is a very interesting annotated research project that we can all follow along with. If you’re curious, please check out the Nokia Solar blog and follow @nokiasolar on Twitter.
Image credit via tbone_sandwich