Editor’s note: This article was first published in June 2011, as a short news item, and its prediction that solar phone chargers would soon appear in our cities reflects that moment.
University of Belgrade (Serbia). A group of students with an entrepreneurial streak came up with the idea of inventing a public mobile phone charger powered by a single energy source, solar energy, and installing it in several cities.
These stations have a solar panel on top that stores the energy, which is then delivered through 16 charging sockets for portable devices.
The chargers are free for any passer-by who needs to charge their phone, so thanks to this idea, running out of battery in Belgrade is no longer a problem. But if it’s free for users, where’s the business?
The idea was patented and sold to the city council, so the students received generous financial compensation. They have also earned a reputation in their country as social entrepreneurs, since they help protect the environment and develop clean energy, not to mention providing a useful service for the public. We won’t have to wait long to see these solar chargers in our own cities.
Further reading
Featured image: o_andras, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
