How 'smart' street lights save energy

An intelligent streetlight system, designed by Dutch Delft University of Technology, uses motion sensing technology that automatically dim streetlights when no pedestrians or vehicles are in the vicinity, Kennedy writes, and the idea is ready to go commercial.

|
Andrew Winning/Reuters/File
A street light and the London Eye, are seen on a foggy autumn morning in central London.

Europe’s answer to saving energy by imposing blackouts on the streets may be avoided with the commercialization of smart street lights that sense when they are needed and dim when they are not.

The intelligent streetlight system, designed by  Dutch Delft University of Technology, using motion sensing technology that automatically dims streetlights to 20% power when no pedestrians or vehicles are in the vicinity—and the idea is ready to go commercial.

Europe pays over $13 billion a year powering streetlights, and this massive sum accounts for more than 40% of government energy bills. From another perspective, we’re talking about 40 million tons of CO2 emissions annually, equal to that of 20 million cars. (Related article: IKEA Tries to Simplify Solar)

For now, European cities are contemplating the imposition of blackouts on the streets after midnight in rural and residential areas. But the new smart lighting technology could avoid this. 

Pilot testing of the intelligence streetlight system proved successful at the Delft University campus, and since then, the project has been implemented in four municipalities in the Netherlands and one in Ireland, with many more ready to come online.

The system is said to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions by up to 80%, while at the same time lowering maintenance costs and reducing light pollution.

As a person or car approaches, their movement is detected by the closest streetlight, and its output goes up to 100%. (Related article: Could Developments at Volvo Change the Future of Electric Vehicles)

Because the lights are all wirelessly linked to one another, the surrounding lights also come on, and only go back down to 20% pedestrian or vehicle traffic has passed. The technology distinguishes between people and smaller animals, like cats and mice. The system also allows for individual configuration of lighting levels at different places on a street, based on tendencies and needs.

Chintan Shah, who designed the system, told reporters that municipalities utilizing the system should see it paying for itself within three to four years, particularly because aside from energy savings we are looking at operational and maintenance savings of up to 50%.

Several other European countries are working independently on their own intelligent streetlight systems. Denmark’s capital Copenhagen plans to connect 20,000 smart street lights by next year, while efforts are also underway Finland.

Original article: http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Street-Smarts-for-Street-Lights.html

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to How 'smart' street lights save energy
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Energy-Voices/2013/1105/How-smart-street-lights-save-energy
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe