For a few months Colin has been charging his mobile phone, PDA, Tablet PC, high definition video camera and various other AA and AAA-powered gadgets via a small Solar Energy setup.

During a volunteering and research trip to Alice Springs in late 2008, we supplied a little infrastructure support to attendees of the listening tour to remote communities.

In an effort to deliver value in a responsible way, provide an example of the relevance and freedom gained through renewable sources of energy and to get some valuable field experience, we built a photo-voltaic kit and were able to supply mobile phone, video camera and AA battery charging facilities.

Now that we're back in Melbourne, we've added to the experimental system and have been generating enough energy to charge and run a PC and the related bits and pieces.

Reducing energy consumption, purchasing GreenPower and generating our own energy from renewable sources are extremely important in Victoria, Australia. We source 95% of our electricity through burning brown coal ^{(See CES Victoria's 2008 State of the Environment Report)}, considerably dirtier and having a greater impact on our planet's green house effect than black coal, making Victorians the most polluting people on the planet... that's embarrassing, especially given we think we're so clever.

Right now, I'm also lighting my desk at night via an impressively bright LED lamp, powered by AA batteries that I charge using the solar energy setup.

 this|link|desktop reference