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25 Eco-friendly streetlights for a green future

Eco-friendly streetlights for a green future

Electricity forms the base of our modern life. Although its demand is ever increasing, its supply can’t match it. In addition, a considerable portion of the electricity that we use comes from non-renewable sources. Therefore, it becomes necessary for us to find sustainable technologies that not only help us save money but the environment too. Amongst all the environment-related schemes that nations are carrying out throughout the world, governments play a very important role. The least the countries can do to go green is they can opt for eco-friendly streetlights.

25 – Eco friendly streetlights that show us the green way

Nowadays, there is a rising demand for energy. Moreover, its supply is also declining. This is making product manufacturers and designers come up with sustainable alternatives. These help us save energy as most of them run on renewable sources of energy. The street lighting industry is also witnessing a change. Many manufacturers are unveiling next-gen solar-powered street lights and designers are coming up with even better lighting solutions for the future. Boosting this green trend, here are 20 sustainable street lighting systems that can make streets green and safe.

1. Solar Powered Invisible Streetlight

Designed by Johgoh Lee, the Invisible Streetlight is a solar powered street light. It imitates leaves and easily hides among natural plants on the sides of streets. Comprising double injection of silicon, aluminum and a photo capacitor, these sustainable lights keep glowing all night long.

2. Prisma Street Light

The Prisma Street Light by designer Agustin Otegui projects three light beams in different directions. It has 360 degrees of colored light with varying intensities. These can be radiated from the LED sphere. Furthermore, solar panels on the sides also charge the lights during the day and provide light at night. Moreover, the electromagnetic glass shifts from transparent to reflective and you can redirect the light when you don’t need one of the sides. This results in adequate use of power supply.

3. Solar Trees

Conceptualized by designers over at Vinaccia Integral Design, the Solar Tree is an innovative street lighting system that gets powered by renewable solar energy. The tree-shaped structures have six branches, each of which has monocrystalline silicon solar cells that generate up to 100W of clean electrical power. In addition, the stored energy is supplied to a 48W LED lamp that has brightness equaling an ordinary 400W halogen lamp.

4. Solar-powered Gotham Lamp

3XN designed sustainable LED luminaires for Bella Center in Copenhagen. Dubbed Gotham, the street lamps are powered by solar energy which is harvested by PV modules. The modules generate more energy than what is required by the lamps.

5. LED Lantern Solar Light

Designed by Vinaccia Integral Design, the LED Lantern Solar Light helps illuminate streets with renewable energy. The lights are to be crafted in aluminum with monocrystalline silicon solar panels. These can generate up to 100W of green power. Moreover, the energy is stored in batteries. After dark energy is released to fuel LED headlamps which consume up to 48W of power for the same amount of illuminating power as a 500W halogen lamp.

6. Luceplan Sky

The Luceplan Sky by Alfredo Häberli relies on the energy of the sun to illuminate the streets after dark. The PV panels resting on top of the lights charge batteries during the daytime. As night falls, this power up the LEDs to release intense and prolonged lighting in the area.

7. Ross Lovegrove’s Solar Tree

British designer Ross Lovegrove designed the Solar Tree, an innovative street lighting system that relies on renewable energy. The idea was to bring art and light to the Ringtrasse and Lovegrove came up with the concept of solar tree, made with the modern technology of pipe bending.

8. Embryo

The Embryo Street Lighting concept by designer Harsha Vardhan looks completely practical and effective. Inspired by a living sprout, the Embryo not only generates electricity for illumination but for other uses as well. The flexible photovoltaic cell on the top of the hood-like roof and an included wind turbine harnesses renewable energy that will not only supply power to the lamp itself, but the remaining energy can be stored in a battery contained at the bottom and used for other purposes.

9. Sharp’s Solar Powered LED Street Light

Sharp LN-LW3A1 is a solar-powered LED street light combines a Seismic Motion Sensor that detects the occurrence of a major earthquake measuring 5 or greater while delivering full brightness during nighttime hours for two days. With a lifetime of 10 years, the zero-maintenance street light certainly seems like a lamp for a greener future.

10. Night Owl

Industrial designer Edan Kurzwell has develop the Night Owl lighting system. It is illuminated via high-output LED clusters. These rely on batteries which charge by large flexible polymer solar films on the top of the lights. The lights would also be hardwired into the city’s power grid. This would return any additional solar energy back to the city. Furthermore, it would also help to draw minimal charging power during long winters, or long periods of time without sunlight.

11. Seagull

The Seagull is a solar and wind-powered spinning streetlight that stores renewable energy in a battery at the base of the light pole. Solar panels takes the center stage during day time and the spinning wind turbines are for the night.

12. SonUmbra

The SonUmbra has been designed by Loop.pH as a unique interactive solar-powered tree lighting system. The structure comes with strands of light-emitting fabric woven into a lucent web of branches. The SonUmbra gets powered from a PV-equipped canopy that harnesses solar energy during the day and stored it in onboard batteries to light the tree up after dark.

13. Trash-powered Streetlamp

Industrial designer Haneum Lee has come up with a concept lighting system that not only reduces the energy demands but also composts food waste. The lamppost composts trash and uses the methane, which releases as a byproduct to fuel the lights. In addition, the concept lamp allows users to throw their organic waste into a wastebasket, which further recycles it for the desired energy.

14. Nature Power Light Your Road

Industrial designers Zhou Qian and Tao Ma have tried to bring wind and solar energy generating techniques together in a concept streetlight dubbed Nature Power Light Your Road. The system comes in the form of a flower, with the petals equipped with solar panels and a wind turbine as well. Furthermore, whatever energy the combination generates, it stores that in onboard batteries. Afterward, it relays it to a set of LED lights after dark.

15. Light Tree

The Light Tree by designer Omar I. Huerta Cardoso has been crafted like a tree with nanotube solar cells that provide unique aesthetics aside from great functionality. The concept combines hydroponic techniques with the latest solar cell technology. In addition, it features water inside to efficiently conduct the light. This light is generated by a range of ultra-bright LEDs placed in the base. The water feeds the seeds towards the top of the tree.

16. Hybrid Wind and Solar Powered Street Lamp

These hybrid streetlamps by Urban Green Energy consist of a solar array topped with a wind turbine. Furthermore, the generators churn out up to 380W of electrical power to keep these lamps glowing through the night.

17. Flow Bamboo Lighting

The Flow by IGenDesign is a public lighting system with a difference that harnesses sustainable materials and energy to light the bleak nights at secluded places. Featuring a structure finished in bamboo that supports LEDs, wires and the dynamo. Furthermore, the self-maintaining light works on the principle of vertical wind turbine and seizes the wind from all directions to power the lamp at night.

18. Turbine Light

Designed by TAK Studio, the Turbine Light produces energy from air turbulence caused by passing traffic. The contraption or conception channelizes the electrical energy to illuminate the way of the passing vehicles.

19. Light Blossom

Designed by Philips, the Light Blossom lighting solution will give you LED-illuminated streets with the power of the sun and the wind. The lights that come with petals keep on transforming and changing their position to get the most out of the sun and wind throughout the day. In addition, as night falls, these lights get into a “stand-by” mode, and keep emitting the minimum light required for safety. However, as someone crosses the street below, the proximity sensors mounted on the lights enable the lights to come out of the stand-by mode and shower the street with the maximum light that can be offered.

20. Mawaridoro Lamp

Toshihiko Suzuki Architects and Associates have developed the Mawaridoro wind-powered lighting system that uses wind speeds of 1.5m/s to rotate a lampshade measuring 30 cm in diameter. The energy generated is directly used to illuminate the LEDs. Excessive power is stored in a nickel hydride battery for quiet evenings.

21. Philips ‘floating’ LED Street lights

Philips ‘floating’ LED Street lightsPhillips has developed a floating LED system that would be placed beneath the trees and leave ample space on the ground for cyclists and pedestrians.

The idea behind the development of FreeStreet system was to adjust street lighting according to people’s convenience. Cables were suspended to run parallel to the street and electrically sourced after every 100 meters. Earlier too, companies have developed such suspended systems, but they needed electric sourcing after every 20 meters to keep them working.

The LED’s are not simply clinging down the suspension, but are integrated into the cables and gives the impression of fluid drops trampling along the wire. This makes the system less obtrusive and eliminates the vertical clutter of light poles; although one can say that the system does create a horizontal clutter above your head.

The light from the LED’s is far more focused than conventional street lights and so perfect for an urban set up. Its placement has been deliberately kept low so that the light emission is more even and widespread. The floating system hangs from a height of about four and a half meters by means of four poles. The above account implicitly states how environmentally friendly these installations are; given the fact their arrangement maximizes the use of all resources without creating a mess on ground.

22. Eco Tech: Sunflowers power LEDs

Eco Tech: Sunflowers power LEDsThese unique flowers with exceptionally simple functions are lovely by day and dazzling at night. The solar cells gather power during the day and charge the high-power LED during night, making them gorgeously twinkle in random patterns in the dark. These lights make an excellent lighting option for streetlights or garden paths because of their low power consumption. The design supports an eco-friendly environment as they are energy-efficient and low-maintenance, making Sunflowers an excellent choice for our streets.

23. KAIST develops sun-tracking Sola LED streetlight

KAIST develops sun-tracking Sola LED streetlightResearchers at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology have developed high-performance solar-powered streetlight – Sola LED. The street lamp uses sun’s energy to power onboard LED light for illumination. The energy-efficient system features sun-tracking solar panels that better the output of the entire system.

Energy generated by solar panels is stored in high-performance lithium batteries, which allows the lights to function even during cloudy days. Sola LED is being claimed to be easy to install and can operate for a longer period of time without much maintenance.

24. World’s first fully autonomous solar streetlights

World’s first fully autonomous solar streetlightsWe’re reported about several concept streetlights that harvest the sun during the day to illuminate highways after dark. While most of those designs are still on paper, Enertia Engineering has created the world’s first fully-integrated streetlights that are powered by renewable solar energy.

The streetlights use the latest LEDs, controls and solar power systems, which are required for fully autonomous use. The EnerSolar streetlight can provide three nights of autonomous light even if the solar panels didn’t charge the onboard batteries during daytime.

The simple installation makes it straightforward for almost anyone to apply EnerSolar street lights. There is no external battery box or solar panel as everything is contained within the light-head itself. The streetlights can be attached to any standard lighting pole for instant lighting. Since there is no connection to the electrical grid, the installation is safer and easier than regular street lights.

25. KiBiSi’ssTREEt lighting tree concept relies on renewable solar energy

KiBiSi’s sTREEt lighting tree conceptThese modern street lights are run by solar power and also offer seating arrangements like swings for public utility. These sTREEt trees are modifiable and adjustable in nature and can easily fit to the specific requirements of the city. Like real trees, their sizes vary from a sapling to a fully grown tree and could be found in parks as well as public places. They also generate energy with solar panels that feeds these trees at night making them one of the best public utility objects.

These trees help in providing shade during day time and light at night, cost same as streetlamps, and add value and magnificence to the city. They are also capable of accommodating telephone line, power line, street lights, spot lights and likewise. Each neighborhood can use a different sTREEt shape, style and color thus adding beauty in an eco-friendly manner to the infrastructure of the city.

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