Sharp phones
Sharp has developed a splash resistant mobile that is partly chargeable with solar energy. The SOLAR HYBRID SH-08A is available in Japan through NTT Docomo starting in September. Ten minutes of charging will result one minute of talking time. This may not sound much, but think if you have the device in a daylight, say 5 hours per day. 5 x 60 means 300 minutes. This is already a half hour freely charged talking time. It's not nothing.
According to Nokia's environment website (good source of general info, btw), charging your mobile for four hours every week means 800 Wh of energy per year. If electricity costs 5,5 cents per kWh, it means 0,0055 cents per Wh, right? This means 800 Wh x 0,0055 cents=4,4 cents per year. In real life, we don't really charge our phones four hours per week, I would double that. So I'm paying 8,8 cents per year for charging my phone. Getting a solar panel phone cannot be argued with cost savings, that's for sure.
But lets remember there are 4 billion mobiles in the world. That's 4 000 000 000. 4 billion times 1,6 kWh (8 hours of charging per week) equals 6 400 000 000 kWh. This is 6,4 gigawatts. That's a few coal plants right there, so using environment as an argument to switch to mobiles that run on renewable and sustainable energy is very rational. This is now a bit besides the title, but now that I got going, I will also list this: The potential capacity of renewable energy in the world, presented in Terawatts (TW). Sun radiation: 90 000 TW, Wind: 300-1200 TW, Water streams: 10-30 TW, Waves: 1-10 TW, Biomass: 30 TW, Tides: 3 TW, Geothermic temperature: 30 TW (Source: Tiede in Finnish). Based on these numbers, conducting R&D on solar energy is a solid investment.
But, back to the devices. The SH-08A sounds like it's packed with a lot of nice stuff. The handset comes with an 8-megapixel CCD camera that "takes excellent photographs even dim lighting or when objects are moving", according to the NTT Docomo press release. It also has a GPS, HSDPA, automatic software updates including i-mode™ browser upgrades, Area Mail™ disaster information service (cool), voice input search and email (how cool is that!!!), personalized i-concier™ and i-Widget™ services (don't know what they are but sound cool), and the following - should I say cool - entertainment features: Music & Video Channel™, Video clips (10MB i-motion™, "One-segment" terrestrialdigital broadcasting, Chaku-Uta Full® , Music Player WMA, i-αppli™ , i-αppli™ online, Osaifu-Keitai™ mobile wallet with iD™ credit payments and DCMX™ mobile credit cards, etc.
Maybe it's the Japanese application names that make my head swirl with admiration, but I do think this sounds like a really nice device. (voice input email, seriously... want one now). I would buy it instantly if it came to the shops in Finland. Guess which color?
Image from NTT Docomo
In May, Softbank announced to be selling a Sharp mobile with a solar panel, too.
Before that solar powered devices were announced at the Mobile World Congress by Samsung and LG. Boy the Asians are rockin with greentech. Here's what I wrote about Samsung and LG in February:
I wonder how the Samsung and LG devices are selling ? Let me know if you have any information.
A final kind request to the mobile industry as a whole: please stop referring to talk time as the standard measure of how long the battery lasts. With devices that have an array of data connectivity services, no one is tracking talk time any more. This plea would especially go to devices that have alternative energy sources, or otherwise use power as a key selling point. A bit more focus on the software functionalities would be nice, too. We don't always need to know the size and weight first, but what the phone can do for us. Thanks for considering.
According to Nokia's environment website (good source of general info, btw), charging your mobile for four hours every week means 800 Wh of energy per year. If electricity costs 5,5 cents per kWh, it means 0,0055 cents per Wh, right? This means 800 Wh x 0,0055 cents=4,4 cents per year. In real life, we don't really charge our phones four hours per week, I would double that. So I'm paying 8,8 cents per year for charging my phone. Getting a solar panel phone cannot be argued with cost savings, that's for sure.
But lets remember there are 4 billion mobiles in the world. That's 4 000 000 000. 4 billion times 1,6 kWh (8 hours of charging per week) equals 6 400 000 000 kWh. This is 6,4 gigawatts. That's a few coal plants right there, so using environment as an argument to switch to mobiles that run on renewable and sustainable energy is very rational. This is now a bit besides the title, but now that I got going, I will also list this: The potential capacity of renewable energy in the world, presented in Terawatts (TW). Sun radiation: 90 000 TW, Wind: 300-1200 TW, Water streams: 10-30 TW, Waves: 1-10 TW, Biomass: 30 TW, Tides: 3 TW, Geothermic temperature: 30 TW (Source: Tiede in Finnish). Based on these numbers, conducting R&D on solar energy is a solid investment.
But, back to the devices. The SH-08A sounds like it's packed with a lot of nice stuff. The handset comes with an 8-megapixel CCD camera that "takes excellent photographs even dim lighting or when objects are moving", according to the NTT Docomo press release. It also has a GPS, HSDPA, automatic software updates including i-mode™ browser upgrades, Area Mail™ disaster information service (cool), voice input search and email (how cool is that!!!), personalized i-concier™ and i-Widget™ services (don't know what they are but sound cool), and the following - should I say cool - entertainment features: Music & Video Channel™, Video clips (10MB i-motion™, "One-segment" terrestrialdigital broadcasting, Chaku-Uta Full® , Music Player WMA, i-αppli™ , i-αppli™ online, Osaifu-Keitai™ mobile wallet with iD™ credit payments and DCMX™ mobile credit cards, etc.
Maybe it's the Japanese application names that make my head swirl with admiration, but I do think this sounds like a really nice device. (voice input email, seriously... want one now). I would buy it instantly if it came to the shops in Finland. Guess which color?
Image from NTT Docomo
In May, Softbank announced to be selling a Sharp mobile with a solar panel, too.
Before that solar powered devices were announced at the Mobile World Congress by Samsung and LG. Boy the Asians are rockin with greentech. Here's what I wrote about Samsung and LG in February:
Samsung Blue Earthis made of recycled plastic bottles and has built-in technology thatknows when to turn the backlights up and down, or when to powerperipherals. The solar panel on its back is said to produce enoughenergy to make a phone call. This is interesting. You may recall that Imade a concept for Nokia called Eco Sensor Concept.During that work our energy people calculated that a pouch made ofstandard silicon solar cells would be enough to power a phone'sstandby, or the wrist band of the sensor unit, covered with solar cellscould power the sensor unit alone (although in that concept we wereenvisioning using dye sensitized solar cells on transparent polymerfilms for flexibility and transparency. Unfortunately these won't be incommercial quality before a while). I would really like to find moreinformation about the technologies behind sensing its environment forcontroling the backlights, as well as on the solar power calculations.If anyone finds out, please send this way.
LG seems to be taking the solar energy a bit more seriously at this stage, as they launch two products (ifI understood correctly). Their solar powered phone is similar toSamsung's, i.e. silicon based photovoltaic panels on the back of aphone. However, they also seem to have a removable back cover that canpower any LG device. That's genious.
I wonder how the Samsung and LG devices are selling ? Let me know if you have any information.
A final kind request to the mobile industry as a whole: please stop referring to talk time as the standard measure of how long the battery lasts. With devices that have an array of data connectivity services, no one is tracking talk time any more. This plea would especially go to devices that have alternative energy sources, or otherwise use power as a key selling point. A bit more focus on the software functionalities would be nice, too. We don't always need to know the size and weight first, but what the phone can do for us. Thanks for considering.
Posted by Petra S at 7/15/2009 10:15 AM 
Categories: Eco stuff, Phones'n'Stuff
Tags: Mobile technology Green technology Innovation
Categories: Eco stuff, Phones'n'Stuff
Tags: Mobile technology Green technology Innovation
Sounds interesting in theory, but it would make more sense to me to sell a portable solar powered phone charger. That way existing phones can take advantage of green technology as well.
Perhaps if we had a vehicle sunshade that is basically a solar panel that charges a portable battery for later use, then that would be more viable. Here in Texas we have summer months of just sun. It's so hot here that people spend their weekends in the mall while all of those cars are parked out in the sun.
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Great idea. The mobile industry has been working with car industry on bluetooth, navigation and such, but why not on solar power? As you say, it's crazy to have those cars stand in the sun useless, while they could be collecting electricity.
Thanks for the idea, I'll quote you when I pass it on.
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This is encouraging, but impractical. It reminds me of the current situation with electric cars - they are totally impractical. It's like the science is in limbo - not quite there yet, so it won't sell yet. But the fact that it is being developed at all is encouraging.
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