What we're doing right
More bright ideas
25th October 2008
The Light Blossom. Photo Courtesy of Philips
Three German towns are piloting a project that keeps streets dark until travellers call into an automated system to switch lights on along their route. Schwelentrup-Doerntrup and Rahden have joined the Dial4Light scheme, which has saved the town of Lemgo $70,000, as well as reduced light pollution, which confuses the biological clocks of plants, animals and people.
Energy-saving lighting innovations are becoming more popular across the globe.
In San Francisco, the Civil Twilight Collective has developed an award-winning lunar-resonant streetlight, which burns dimmer when the moon is full.
Last week, electronics manufacturer Philips unveiled a new streetlight design called the Light Blossom, which uses sensors to brighten its energy-efficient LEDs when people stroll nearby. The flower-like design has solar collectors on the rotating “petals,” which automatically track the sun (like a sunflower) and flex up or down, depending on how windy the weather is.
The Light Blossom builds on a number of other off-grid streetlight designs that gather solar and/or wind energy. For example, the Canadian company Hybridyne Power Systems has seen 750 of its wind-solar lights installed worldwide, mostly in parking lots, walkways and private country clubs.
This year, several thousand solar lights built by a Dubai company were installed in Baghdad, where fuel supplies are constantly threatened.
Published in The Green Report in The Globe and Mail