Living with the Machine

Solar Power Your Laptop?

What a good idea I thought, a solution to the shortcomings of conventional batteries, and green too. Well maybe, but not yet.

Micro-Star International (MSI) exhibited a notebook computer which has solar-cells embedded in the lid, so even when closed it is still gathering solar rays and converting them to recharge the battery. Unfortunately the product is only experimental and there are no plans to sell them yet. Why?

Well the problem is the cost of solar cells, currently the cost for a solar-powered unit would be 2-3 times that of a conventional machine, but development is continuing, so there may be something affordable down the line.

Initially the research was to find a way of powering laptops in remote areas, and reminds me of the project in a post earlier 'The Green Machine' - the UN project for $100 portable computers to enable poorer people, in remote areas, to access Internet technology. These machines are powered up by a crank. However the vision of busy executives cranking their notebooks isn't somehow very elegant, so solar-power is a possibility, as is nano-technology which will eventually produce batteries with 3 times the storage capacity of conventional lithium-ion, but again, this is not estimated to be available for over 3 years.

It's surprising that battery technology can't keep up with the increasing resource usage of increasingly powerful machines, and larger screens. Despite the efforts of large research companies and innovative inventors, the solution to an adequate, and affordable, solution to portable power seems to be years off.

It's always the same isn't it? No matter the huge advances in technology, we want the future now, but the future never comes. Just have to be patient.

posted by Tara Giles @ 5:48 AM