The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and Clear Channel are deploying 500 solar powered lanterns at bus stops.  Insider has lending clients who use solar to power billboards which are too far from the grid to get electricity.  Lamar has solar powered billboards in 8 markets in Florida.

Weather matters with solar powered billboards.  Insider hears that the batteries take a while to recharge after they’ve run down.   When the sun goes away for a day it takes two straight days of sun for enough electricity to be in the battery to power a billboard effectively.  This means solar is good in Tucson (350 sunny days per year), iffy in San Francisco (250 days per year) and a bad idea in Seattle (152 sunny days per year).

Insider would like to hear from readers about their experience installing and running solar powered billboards.

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