Street Charge has been successfully trialled in New York, and now available in Europe, with a launch in Northern Ireland within the next few months.
The product keeps your mobile phone charged for people on-the-go in between home, office or the café, using solar power.
With the recent increase in towns and cities offering "˜free wifi' to allow shoppers and businesses the opportunity to constantly keep in contact, the drain on battery life from "˜smart phones' continues to increase. Bright LED screens consume huge amounts of the battery energy and can run a battery from full to empty in as little as four hours. Often important calls or contact can be missed or just phoning for a lift home, or taxi is no longer possible with a dead battery. Street Charge resolves that issues easily
When Hurricane Sandy tore through New York City in 2012, and power supplies were down for some considerable time it illustrated one glaring problem in a city where public Wi-Fi is available on just about any street: There's no convenient solution for charging mobile devices on the go.
Each Street Charge unit houses six USB ports in total. For iPhone owners, both Lightning and 30-pin dock connector cables are built in. There's a micro USB cable included for Android / Windows Phone / BlackBerry devices, and three female USB ports are also available if you've got your own cable handy. The "charging stations" provide ample room for users to place their devices down on Street Charge and chat with others stopping by for a quick boost.
Street Charge will operate around the clock, 24 hours a day. The powerful sun-fuelled internal battery will continue charging plugged-in devices throughout the night. Just how much power does it put out? Each port produces up to 10 watts, enough to recharge your smartphone at the same rate as (or faster than) most OEM wall chargers. It is expected most people will stop by for brief 10- or 15-minute charging sessions. The goal is to get you from point A to point B with a generous amount of your battery percentage intact.
Street Charge can be deployed either as a permanent solution (with sponsorship opportunities) as in New York where AT&T sponsored some in Battery Park, or else as temporary units for summer locations, fairgrounds, music festivals etc. they can then be stored during the winter months when not required.
Units are currently deployed in public parks, university/school campuses, city centres and government grounds – anywhere people congregate or relax.
Depending on usage, four hours per day is generally sufficient to replenish the internal batteries.
During the day, panels collect solar energy and charge up the internal batteries. This power can then charge the connected devices at night or when the sun isn't shining.
Generally, it will charge phones as fast as a wall outlet charger – about two hours from empty to full. Of course you may only need a short duration boost. Battery life is two years. They are easily replaced, accessible through a port in the upper post.
