StreetLightNews

The town of Lac Megantic is home to Canada’s largest telescope. However, due to population growth and urban sprawl in the surrounding area, conducting research at the observatory was becoming increasingly difficult.
Therefore, an initiative to reduce the sky glow has led to installation of a number of dimming units in streetlight poles. During the hours of 10 pm and 6 am, the streetlight is reduced by up to 65%, saving as much as 50% energy.
The solution, Night-Saver, is controlled via a microchip and is installed in individual poles. Read more about the project in Canada here…

The city of Peterborough is attempting to become UKs green capital. One way of achieving this is to dim the streetlights. The City Council is considering dimming in order to substantially reduce their carbon footprint. See more at Peterborough Today.

However, only lights on parkways would be dimmed, not residential area streetlights, where they would remain on full blast. With the dimming technologies available, it would make sense to dim streetlights everywhere, not just on parkways and motorways. One of the city councillors states in the article that dimming is not something that should be used on all roads. It seems that they still have some research to do over at Peterborough.

A recent article in Washington Post describes how streetlights are a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. The newspaper quotes Robert Grow, director of government relations at the Greater Washington Board of Trade, for estimating an annual reduction of 1.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions if the 10 largest metropolitan areas of the US switch to a centralized solution and LED streetlights. This is equivalent to taking 212,000 cars off the roads and save an additional 90 million taxpayer dollars annually.

In his report on streetlight savings, Grow recommends a centrally controlled streetlight solution with dimming and optimized maintenance functionalities.

According to the Post, Grow was surprised that more hasn’t been done already to improve the efficieincy of streetlight.

As previously described in this blog, the most efforts have been made in the town of Ann arbor, Mich. where all streetlights have been converted to LEDs.

Centralized streetlight solutions are offered by companies such as US-based Echelon with installations in e.g. Oslo, Norway, and Danish company Amplex with installations in e.g. Scandinavia, the United Arab Emirates and Asia.

In Grand Rapids, Michigan, city officials are experimenting with LEDs for streetlight.

The US company Relume Technologies has provided 12 LEDs for a pilot project which will cut a significant part of the consumption and maintenance bills.

Other North American cities to test LEDs for streetlight are Ann Arbor, Raleigh, N.C. and Toronto, Canada.

See more at the Grand Rapids Press. 

Five new street lighting research projects focus on establishing new standards and best practices for the lighting industry.

Roger Elphick, chairman of the UK Lighting Board, points out that the initiative is important because it creates a joint effort towards energy management and an increased focus on minimizing the carbon footprint that comes from street lighting.

Included in the five projects are topics such as reviewing the quality of street light and determining the appropriate lighting levels for different situations. Also, there will be a project focusing on financial returns and improving the efficiency of lighting systems and energy cost reductions.

The projects are all set to be completed in Spring 2008. We will follow up on the results at this site.For more information regarding the article at the Institution of Lighting Engineers, read more here…  

According to Gordon Brown’s clima speech last week, the UK has plans of creating an environmentally sustainable economy. They have passed a law to fight global warming and want to lead the way by becoming the world’s leading green nation.

According to Brown, the government is currently considering whether the targets for CO2 reductions can be increased from 60 to 80%.

Also, the UK strives to achieve the EU target of having 30% of all energy coming from sustainable energy sources in 2020. Additionally, the financial support for sustainable initiatives will be increased significantly.

In Devon and Cornwall, they have already commenced serious preparations for sustanability by launching a project where all street lights will be dimmable. 40% of the region’s CO2 emmissions stem from lighting, and thus lowering the energy consumption here will provide significant CO2 savings. 

At the Spring Mountain Ranch community in Nevada, a rather unconventional solution has been chosen for powering the community’s street light.

A total of 992 lamps are running on natural gas, and since they are not equipped with the technology to be turned off, they burn 24 hours a day, summer and winter.

This comes at a high cost for the community, and the residents are picking up the tab. A resident from the homeowner’s association reports that one month’s gas bill comes to $17,500. This equals $17 per lamp per month. Electricity-powered street lights in the area cost between $3 and $6 a month.

Abandoning the solution is not really an option as the gas company will charge $240 per lamp to be retrofitted to electricity. So for now, the lights will stay on 24h.

Read the article here… 

There seems to be a trend towards energy savings being used as branding for American cities. More and more are implementing solutions that lower energy consumption, and then use this in their marketing strategy. Whatever works!
In Yakima, Washington, LEDs are replacing both traffic signal lamps and traditional 200 Watt HPS lamps. Initial results show savings of over 50%. The 100 Watt LEDs provide ultra-white lights with good color rendering. Also, the new lamps lowers light polution and has a 15-year product life. Read the full article on SmartMoney.com.
As described in a previous entry, similar projects are under way, e.g. in Ann Arbor where they are planning on becoming the first American city to convert 100% of their street light to LEDs. See more here…

Wouldn’t it be brilliant if cities and towns did not have to rely on residents to report street light outages? Typing ‘street light’ into a search engine provides hundreds of hits on cities urging their inhabitants to report any outages. Some even offer coloured ribbons which can be tied around the poles in order to help maintenance crews locate them.

Several companies offer solutions which can improve maintenance procedures and increase control with the street lights: Amplex, Cristal Control and Streetlight.Vision.

In the Iraqi town of Fallujah, mostly known for insurgent activity, things have started to quiet down, allowing for an increased focus on rebuilding the infrastructure.

The US Army Corps of Engineers is overseeing efforts to equip the town’s east-west thoroughfare with solar powered street light. With 1,050 lighting points, this will be the biggest solar powered installation worldwide to date, according to the manufacturer, SEPCO.

The system is being installed at the rate of 20 poles per day, and besides Fallujah, 4 other Iraqi towns and 17 villages in Afghanistan have been equipped with solar electric lighting systems.

Read the full article here…