Disqus
Quick! What’s the first thing that pops into your mind when you think government-funded research? Words like “university,” “NASA,” “military” or something along those lines are likely your top-picks. US wireless carrier Sprint is pretty much the last entity we’d expect to score a research grant from the US Department of Energy (DoE). And yet, Sprint has managed to secure $7.3 million in funding from the US DoE to research hydrogen fuel-cell technology. Even more surprising, this latest DoE grant is the third research grant awarded to Sprint in the search for better fuel-cell technologies.
The DoE has $41.9 million worth of research grants to dole out, and Sprint has become the only wireless carrier to get a piece of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s funding-pie. Sprint has apparently been working to outfit their cell-sites with fuel-cell power supplies for years now. The No. 3 US wireless carrier already has hydrogen fuel-cells deployed in the field as cell-site back-up power supplies, capable of providing up to 15 hours of emergency power during critical disaster scenarios. The $7.3 million grant will be used to increase fuel-cell efficiency to deliver 72 hours of back-up power.
Although it may initially seem odd that a wireless carrier is advancing alternative fuel tech, it actually makes sense. Hydrogen fuel-cells are a cleaner alternative to the gas or diesel generators traditionally used as back-up power supplies at many cell-sites in the US. Sprint is plowing ahead with more than 250 emission-free hydrogen fuel-cells deployed across their network.
We’d love to see Sprint researching hydrogen fuel-cell technology for the mobile space. Fuel-cells offer the promise of truly green, renewable energy sources for mobile phones that are becoming increasingly powerful. Unfortunately, the US DoE is likely more concerned with keeping communications infrastructure intact during emergencies…
[Via: Sprint]
About The Author
Will Park
Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...
