Here is an inspiring story of how a handful of villages in western Uganda, which have never had phones before, are now being equipped with Wi-Fi-based wireless VoIP phone systems that… get this… are powered by a combination of solar panels and stationary bicycle peddling.

“Complete with 70-watt solar panels and a bicycle generator — which can provide power in the event of no sunlight — each installation costs only $1,800, including the outdoor Wi-Fi 802.11b antenna,” according to Wired.com. “Calls between the villages are routed by the hub, and cost nothing — like dialing another room from a hotel PBX… Calls destinated for outside the village network go over a satellite link between the hub and the main Ugandan telephone exchange.”

The company — actually, it’s a non-profit organization — that put the system together is called Inveneo Inc., which was created to “strengthen communities, bridge families and save lives in remote villages through information and communication technology.”

My Clean Break column today takes a look at one of Ontario’s newest wineries and the first to get LEED Canada certification for green building design. Stratus Vineyards has gone out of its way to conserve water, use recycled materials, save energy and rely on renewable energy sources. Perhaps the centrepiece of this effort is a vertical closed-loop low-temperature geothermal system that has cut the winery’s energy costs in half. It’s also one of the few gravity-based wineries, meaning a series of stainless steel slides and tubing and the force of gravity are used to process the grapes into wine. No energy-sucking conveyor belts or pumps. It’s another example of how smart thinking from concept to design to construction can have a quick payback and offers the potential benefits of green marketing.