Solar-powered drones could be supplying wireless Internet soon

Solar-powered drones could bring 5G wireless Internet

People are used to seeing “Google” and “Internet” in the same sentence, but it isn’t as often that solar comes into the equation.

Granted, Google has been known to work on an interesting solar-powered project or two, including the interesting solar-powered contact lens, but its recent work regarding drones, wireless Internet and solar power might be the most interesting of all.

More specifically, the company has been testing new solar-powered drone aircraft that would provide wireless 5G Internet and would work to replace cellular Internet systems that are quickly becoming outdated.

Report: Google Secretly Testing '5G' Internet Using Flying Drones: https://t.co/jOgGml17GS#drones #wifi pic.twitter.com/6fJGHu3MbF

— PCMag (@PCMag) January 31, 2016

Project Skybender

The iniative has been dubbed “Project Skybender” and is working to combine the latest solar technolligy with drone innovations to create “next generation” 5G wireless internet access.

Early tests reportedly place the speed of this prototypical new Internet at 40 times faster than current 4G systems, and the company reportedly envisions thousands of high-altitude drones delivering internet access around the world at some point in the (near?) future.

Project Skybender: Google's secretive 5G internet drone tests revealed https://t.co/Pw1P74qy2u

— Guardian US (@GuardianUS) January 29, 2016

Related

New solar cells can harvest heat in the dark

A new generation of solar cells that could generate electricity in the dark? This could ...read more

New perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells are more efficient

Researchers claim a 25.5 percent efficiency rate with their new perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells, which ...read more

Researchers make progress with bio-solar energy

By connecting nine separate bio-solar cells in a grid-like fashion, researchers were able to create ...read more