StreetLightNews

‘If the ten largest cities in the United States converted to the Amplex street light management system it would correspond to removing 212,000 cars from the roads - in pure CO2 savings.’ This promising perspective is offered by Danish company Amplex which specialises in energy-saving systems to manage street lighting. The company is an example of the many already registered companies participating in the climate-related parallel events that will take place during the COP 15 Conference.

The world is now gearing up for the coming COP 15 Conference in the Bella Center in Copenhagen where the overall goal is to enter into an international post-Kyoto climate agreement, which involves as many countries as possible. The COP 15 Conference is the fifteenth Conference of the Parties under the United Nations’ Climate Change Convention.

For two weeks, from December 7-18 2009, about 12,000 decision makers, NGO’s and journalists from more than 200 different countries will meet to discuss the future course of the planet. If President Barack Obama is going to participate in the conference, the organisers are expecting an even more impressive turnout, thus counting about 18,000 visitors.

Even though the actual conference is closed to the general public, a lot of climate-related parallel and side events, which are accessible to everyone, will take place before, during, and after the conference. The premiere business event parallel to COP 15 is the Bright Green Exhibition & Conference which is hosted by the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) on December 12-13.

The highly profiled exhibition is currently in the process of inviting various environmental advocates. Among these are Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and U2 lead singer Bono. It will be like visiting a gallery of climate solutions, and the idea is to combine elements from art, architecture, showbiz, and trade fairs.

The council of Powys, Wales wanted to save money and reduce CO2 emissions - therefore, they decided to switch off two thirds of its street lights. However, this move has led to a number of unfortunate incidents involving residents injuring themselves in the dark streets throughout Powys.

Some elderly residents said they had fallen and injured themselves in the dark and hundreds of others complained that they feel like prisoners in their own homes. One resident suffered a black eye, facial bruising and injured her knee when she fell outside her home, after six street lights were turned off in the residential area.

Some areas are left open to vandalism and theft, after three cars were stolen on the actual night of the switch-off in the autumn of 2008.

Regarding traffic safety, the conditions have also worsened. One of the councillors explains that a light was turned off above a pedestrian crossing where children were waiting to cross but drivers couldn’t see them. “I stopped my car so that I could signal and warn other approaching motorists,” John Brautigam comments.

The news are alarming, and one wonders if the council of Powys has been considering dimming solutions as an alternative to switching off two thirds of the street lights. Dimming can generate savings of about 25 percent, which is already documented previously on this blog.

The Danish financial newspaper Borsen writes that the Danish energy optimization specialist Amplex has developed a street light system that can generate energy savings of up to 30 %.

With large cities in mind, such savings can lead to interesting results on both the financial and green accounts. Amplex has already carried out a great deal of projects in Scandinavia, the Middle East and in Asia. At the moment, the company is negotiating to supply an energy saving system to Beijing, a city of 18 million inhabitants.

Amplex has already carried out a pilot project of its street light control and management system on an urban freeway to Beijing, and has achieved energy savings of about 30 %. According to the company, the savings could be even bigger, if the solution is rolled out in the rest of the city.

The street light system works by automatically varying the lighting intensity to suit actual needs in residential and industrial areas as conditions change from sunrise to sunset.

Amplex’ International Project Manager, Jacob Richard Nielsen, explains to Borsen: “Our system can be installed in the course of six to nine months in a metropolis, and even within that time the savings are normally sizeable enough to pay for the system.”

All important roads which lead to Games venue, airport, hotels, stations, etc. are to be well lit as the Municipal Corporation of Delhi is spending around 40 million USD on improving the street lights prior to the Commonwealth Games in 2010.

A total of 125 roads are to be equipped with new street lights, thus covering hundreds of kilometres, works committee chairman Mahender Nagpal explains in an article brought in The Times of India.

The two first phases of the project are to be completed before the Games begin, and the last phase is taken up once the Games are over.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi is also carrying out repair and maintenance work on over six thousand high-mast lights in Delhi.

City officials hope to secure significant long-term savings and public safety with the deployment of new energy-efficient street lights. First step is the installation of 50 LED (light-emitting diode) street lights in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighbourhood. Compared to traditional high-pressure sodium light bulbs, LED street lights are about 50 percent more energy-efficient, meaning that they last about two to three times longer and produce a whiter, brighter light which benefits the public safety.

Other than implementing LED lights, the city of San Francisco also demonstrated new smart street light control technologies at a local media event. Smart control technologies can contribute another 20 percent of energy efficiency improvement in addition to the LED lights, the article states.

The new technology can help reduce maintenance costs by allowing the operators to monitor individual street light perfomance, adjust the light intensity level and receive immediate information when lights have failed or are about to fail.

The street lights of San Francisco are owned by Pacific Gas & Electric Company and San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, respectively. Both organisations are now working together on testing and evaluating different smart control technologies to better the energy efficiency in San Francisco.

Companies also offering smart control technologies are Power-One, Amplex and Streetlight Intelligence to mention a few.