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Since diving into the deep end when it comes to energy issues, almost every day sees new fascinating concepts, approaches, and technologies. Fascinating … exciting … even hope inspiring at times. And, as well, as the passion builds, so many of these are truly Energy COOL.

There are many ways to see America’s energy excesses, looking outside in nearly any urban area at night is one of those. The concept of “night” and “darkness” seems to have disappeared in many areas, with streetlights seemingly making it possible to read on the street all night long. (Not even accounting for all the people who leave lights outside their homes, in their offices, parking lots lit 24/7, etc …) These street and highway lights really add up: reportedly accounting for some two percent of total US electricity demand.

But it doesn’t have to …

Placing this in context

1 out of every 50 kilowatt hours generated in the United States is dedicated to streetlighting. This is a figure that surprised, even shocked me into even more discomfort with those lights that drive me to put down curtains every night.

Let’s put that into context, for a moment. Electricity power generation represents a bit more than 30 percent of US GHG emissions. (EPA’s 2008 reference sheet on GHG sources) Therefore, roughly .6% of US emissions and something like .15% of global emissions is expended to (over) lighting America’s streets and highways.

Well, this doesn’t have to be the case.

Out there, for awhile, has been the option of “LEDing” a way to something better, using Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights to replace incandescent lightbulbs. While switching to LEDs offers a path to cut electricity use and, therefore, emissions, there are other benefits: in part, the long-lasting LEDs will require replacement far less frequently and, therefore, drive down the total ownership costs. And, “Simply using energy-saving LED light bulbs would eliminate 9 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year, according to one estimate.”

The Infrastructurist looked last week at six different paths to move even further toward sensible and climate-friendly street and highway lighting. From
The Infrastructurist:

“The Seagull” Streetlamp [is a] self-powering device. The main difference is that this one already exists. Installed in Tokyo … it has a solar panel and a rotating, vertical-axis wind turbine.

While that solar panel and wind turbine cost more than a traditional light-pole, consider that this requires no wiring, no connection to the grid. The savings aren’t just from cutting electricity prices.

The NYC LED Lamp Last year, New York City contracted with Office of Visual Interaction to produce new LED-based street lighting radically different in form and function from existing lamps. The new light poles are sleeker and allow beams of light to be directed in different directions — meaning one lamp can illuminate both the sidewalk and the roadway. Though still currently under review, the program could eventually result in the replacement of the city’s entire stock of 300,000 lamps and reduce their overall power usage by 25-30 percent.

The estimate as to payback time: 2.5-3 years.

The River-Powered Streetlight – In a city called Ballybofey in northwestern Ireland, city engineers have installed a water-powered light system. Small turbines (from Ecotec have been placed under a bridge that runs over the local river; as water moves through the system’s propellers, the electricity created is transferred to batteries which then power 30W LED lamps mounted above the bridge. The power is produced at all times by the rapidly moving river, so the lights are not likely to go out any time soon.

To place this power system into context: a 110 watt micro-hydro system.

This is a 3000 pound investment, for this lighting, and is probably worth far more than for Ballybofey just in terms of the publicity (like this post).

Dimming Streetlights – It’s not sexy-looking, but in San Jose, a municipal demonstration program is outfitting 125 street lamps with LED bulbs that can be dimmed based on established need. The idea challenges one of the basic tenets of how street lighting: that lamps should burn at the same brightness all night long. For instance, if properly programmed, lights could be increased in luminosity in areas with known high pedestrian use but decreased in places that see little pedestrian activity; some lights will even include sensors to detect activity and activate only when needed. These improvements are likely to allow the city to save 10 to 60% on street light energy use, so even though the bulbs, at $600 apiece, are more expensive than those they replace, at $200 each, the city will eventually save money on the program as LEDs have much longer life spans.

How about linking lighting to pedestrian movement?

Or, think about those parking lights with lights on all night long when there are virtually no cars for most of the night. Could they be “dimmed” to low (general illumination?) levels for much of the night, “bright” only when the stores and restaurants and offices actually have activity?

TO concepts …

Let’s move from the “deployed” and “deployable” to the concept items, that could become reality in the coming years but aren’t quite there yet.

The “Lunar Resonant” Streetlamp from Civil Twilight is a concept called the “lunar resonant street light,” which is designed to measure the strength of the moonlight and adjust its brightness correspondingly. The concept would “fill in” only the light necessary, since on some nights the moon is so bright that literally no street lights are necessary to navigate sidewalks and roadways. On cloudy or stormy nights, the lights would burn at full capacity. Overall, the program could vastly reduce the amount of “on” time for street lights, and therefore reduce a city’s electricity bill.

There are, already, numerous skylights that are linked into lighting systems. Lots of sunlight, no interior lighting. Night or a thunderstorm, and the lighting goes up. Were you aware that Walmart stores often have no general lighting burning electricity? Their skylights are hooked into a system that moves the artificial lighting up and down by one percent levels — which, reportedly, no one seems to notice any shifting lighting. And, Walmart finds this to be an investment that fully pays off in about 14 months. (In other words, right about an 85% per year financial ROI.) Have to think that this should be transferable to the streetlighting environment, measuring general light levels, and providing additional light only as necessary.

The Light Blossom: Dutch electronics giant Philips may have the most ambitious scheme when it comes to street lighting. Its “Light Blossom” is designed to harness the sun and wind with a moving lamp post that, like a flower, adapts to changing environmental conditions. During the day, the concept lamp’s petals “open” to reveal solar panels, while the head can rotate to follow the sun. During gusty conditions, the petals contract to a half-open position and turn into a rotating wind turbine. Then, at night, the “flower” evolves into a bud ready to light the surrounding streets. (Video here.) Unfortunately, a Philips spokesman told me that ideas from the concept won’t be put into production for another 3 to 5 years – at the minimum.

Okay, this sounds good, even perhaps beautiful, but it reminds me of the amazing concept cars trotted out at car show after car show, tantalizing us with the promise of a better automotive option that seems to never make it onto the roads.

I return to that 2 percent of US electricity and the potential options, in hand, to cut that down to size.

For long, due to light pollution and otherwise, walking at night has been less pleasurable due to the overlighting of most areas. The frustration will be more now as when I walk outside into the brightness provided by the streetlighting, one number will be going through my head: 2 percent. It is past time to do something about it.

Tip of the hat to Dave Albert at Greater, Greater Washington.