In conjunction with Dutch solar pioneer, Intivation and the Digicel Group, ZTE debuted on Wednesday at this year’s Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona, Spain its new solar powered phone that requires only a single solar cell and a chip that steps up the power to 3.7V to handset requirement level.

This new ZTE solar powered handset, the Coral-200, will be available for around the US$40 mark in the markets which are energy-deprived, such as the Caribbean and Central America where the lack of electricity is a daily occurrence. Globally, there are 1.6 billion people in that situation so a niche market has been identified and addressed. But it looks like ZTE has company. Samsung also leveraged the Mobile World Congress show to debut its Blue Earth phone, which is reported to be made from recycled water bottles and powered by a solar panel.

The idea of a solar-powered mobile handset is not new. Previously, Nokia produced one quite a few years ago but it was rather chunky and did not really catch on. One of the initial difficulties about solar cells for handsets is they only produce 0.5V and the average standard handsets require 3.7V to run, so anything from seven solar cells and more are needed. That takes up a large amount of space within the handset chassis.

For almost a year, Digicel has been providing its customers with low-cost or free portable solar chargers in many of these markets as the concept of linking charger devices and a phone at the point of sale has been a proven success.

“In most of the markets where we are present, such as Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Curacao, Dominica, El Salvador etc, the daily routine would be to go to the village and charge the mobile phone at a portable power point,” said Tom Bryant, VP distribution procurement for Digicell Group told us. “In our developed world, the interruption of power is a nuisance, but to these folks it’s a daily occurrence. When we approached ZTE with this idea they were not sceptical, but curious and after nine months, we now have working samples of the Coral 200 Solar handset and production units will come off the line in May this year.”

The technology within the Coral-200 means that 1 hour in solar charge mode will provide 15 minutes of talktime, so eight hours should provide a full device charge. Of course, the Coral-200 can also be charged from conventional mains when available. Digicel will begin to deploy the Coral-200 from this June and commenting on future models, ZTE VP of the Handset Division, Xiong Hui said that as mobile phones continue to proliferate in emerging markets and are widely used where electricity is available, more operators will be demanding more innovative handsets.

“We are confident,” said Xiong Hui, “that the Digicel Coral-200 is an innovative product and that solar power technology can be used in any type of handset which will help millions of consumers worldwide to use mobile phones more conveniently, especially as the technology is more environmentally friendly.”  Amsterdam-based engineering company, Innovation, partners with some of the world’s leading ODM’s and has broad experience integrating solar power solutions in portable consumer electronics.

“The technology we use is a step-up converter,” said Paul Naastepad, CEO of Intivation, “that takes the 0.5v of the solar cell up to 3.7V that is needed for a lithium ion battery. Traditionally, other solutions involve a series of solar cells combined to reach to 3.7V required. Our solution of one cell and the chip effectively uses the size of the cell for power conversion.” The battery chosen by ZTE for this phone has been specially engineered for operation in high temperature environments and is completely safe and totally compliant with the necessary regulations and specifications. Naastepad concluded by saying this solar technology would work with any type of mobile phone so it is likely ZTE could well be producing another variant in the not too distant future.