Solar powered WiFi Router by Meraki
By Brett Bumeter - 25.01.2008
You may recall that I was lamenting about not seeing very many solar power products at the consumer electronics show in Las Vegas a couple weeks back.
I was more likely to see gold bangle kitch and light up rubber balls as freebies than solar power panels at CES.
Well, there were a few products there and one of them that really caught my attention would probably fall under the category of a solar product that is used to power another device that has a primary purpose other than solar energy.
In this particular case I’m talking about an outdoor WiFi router powered by solar energy.
Let me state up front that I’m not just talking about a single router that you might stick in your house to power your laptop while you’re working in the living room. I am talking about an outdoor WiFi network that you can utilize along with your neighbors to establish a network that covers your entire neighborhood. This particular solution comes from a company called Meraki ( www.meraki.com ).
I plan to establish a network to cover the lake cove behind my house next year so that I can work wirelessly anywhere in the cove.
They will soon be coming out with one of their outdoor products that will be powered by a solar panel. It’s not available yet, but I will keep you posted as soon as it is available on the market. Now in addition to the high level of utility that they provide with outdoor wireless networks, I might mention that their prices for their products are relatively inexpensive. Their outdoor wireless routers cost about the same amount of money as your average indoor wireless router, and these are designed to work with multiple routers and establish a mash of WiFi connections!
