In 2006, VIA along with Taiwan-based solar power specialists, Motech Industries teamed up to develop various solar power solutions designed to provide sustainable power supply for VIA pc-1computers. By later that year the white-board ideas and concepts had turned into a real-world project: the Samoa Solar-Powered Community Center.

Based in the remote Samoan village of Ulutogia, Aleipata District, the abundance of sunshine meant solar was the logical power source choice. Moreover, the South Pacific has been largely ignored by global ICT deployment initiatives and is only now taking the necessary steps to build a national infrastructure to equip the country.

This is Steve Paine, a.k.a Chippy. Chippy’s an Englishman living in Germany and working to promote the new category of Ultra Mobile devices (UMPCs) that are starting to spring up everywhere. As part of this he planned the Solar UMPC Tour, in which he’d take a bike, camping equipment, an off-the-shelf UMPC and solar kit to the south of Germany, and cycle down the Rhine for about a week…all the while continuing to work on his websites UMPCPortal and Solar-UMPC using his Samsung Q1b. What’s more, he planned to do it all using only power from the sun.