Need An Alternative Energy Demonstration Project

[irishbobcat]

Here's a part of a Wall Street Journal article explaining how Ann Arbor, Michigan is switching to LED
lighting for it's downtown lighting.....and saving money and energy......

Peace

Dennis Spisak
Independent Green party Candidate for State Representative-60th District

Campaignsite:  Http://votespisak.tripod.com


ANN ARBOR, MICH.
LIGHTING THE WAY
Officials in this town of 115,000 near Detroit took a close look at their $5 million-a-year municipal electrical bill two years ago and realized they were shelling out $1.5 million -- or roughly a third of the total -- just for street lights. Then they realized they could save substantially by simply swapping standard bulbs for a newer technology: light-emitting diodes, or LEDs.
Unlike standard lights that use heated, incandescent bulbs, LED light is cooler and is produced by a semiconductor. The bulbs last as long as 10 years, or five times longer than traditional lights, while using about half as much energy, Ann Arbor officials say.
The LED technology has been around for decades, and the lights have become common in computer indicators and traffic lights. But until about two years ago, LEDs weren't practical for street-lighting purposes because it was difficult for them to produce white light, says Govi Rao, chairman of Lighting Science Group Corp., a New York-based LED provider.
In 2005, Ann Arbor tried out one technique for making white light: blending red, green and blue beams. City officials installed some of the makeshift lights in the City Hall parking lot. "They looked like they were cobbled in somebody's garage," recalls David Konkle, energy coordinator for the city.
Then manufacturers came to the rescue, developing aesthetically pleasing white bulbs by coating blue LEDs with phosphor. City officials spent $15,000 to install the new lights on a few streets downtown and in a residential neighborhood.
One of the few complaints was from a resident who said the new lighting no longer illuminated his home on the street; LEDs shine light directionally and are typically pointed down at the ground, unlike incandescent bulbs, which cast a glow all around. "We told him we're not in the business of lighting his home," Mr. Konkle says.
Most other people liked the new LEDs, and the city recently obtained a $630,000 grant from the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority to replace all 1,046 of the street lights downtown. The city estimates that replacing the downtown street lights alone will save more than $100,000 in reduced power costs annually as well as 294 tons of carbon-dioxide emissions -- equivalent to the carbon dioxide that about 35 homes generate annually from electricity use.
After that, Mr. Konkle says, the rest of the city's lights will be replaced as the technology develops and prices drop. City officials say they could cut their light bill by as much as $700,000 a year by replacing all of the 7,000 or so streetlights in town.

[irishbobcat]

For the Light Up Youngstown program, Solar Powered Streetlights for the Downtown area. See the related article.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/248029/Solar_Tree_Passes_the_Test_in_Austria

Solar Tree Passes the Test in Austria
Posted Dec 28, 2007 by  cgull in Environment | 6 comments | 278 views

Solar Tree, prototype, November 2007, designed by Ross Lovegrove and produced and developed by Artemide polycrystalline solar cells by Sharp. On display at the Piazza della Scala, Milan, Italy. (Photo by David Zanardi)
Related Articles
Gene Test for Prostate Cancer Possible
10 comments
Madagascar New Palm Tree Species Discovered
8 comments
Commercializing Solar Power with Molten Salt
5 comments

A solar tree used to light up the streets passed a key test in Vienna Austria. They provided enough light even when there was no sunlight for four days in a row. The solar tree has a renewable battery powered by solar energy.
The Cultural Project Management (Kulturelles Projektmanagement, Vienna) is installing these solar tree lights on a test basis on the streets of Vienna before they will use it citywide. They went on display for four weeks in October on a busy street, Ringstrasse, and they passed the test with flying colors.

The solar tree had branches containing 10 solar lamps, each one of the lamp contained 36 solar cells made from Sharp. The lamps also had rechargeable batteries and electronic systems. The batteries stored energy during the day and were switched on and off at preset times with the electronic systems.

The tree's lights went on for the first time in Vienna on October 8, 2007 at 11:00 pm. They are now on display outside the La Scala opera house in Milan.

Ross Lovegrove, a British designer, made this solar tree prototype design with the main goal to be both useful and attractive. Artemide, a company from Italy, in designing lighting systems and the German company Sharp Solar joined forces together to design the overall solar tree.

Christina Werner from Cultural Project Management told RenewableEnergyAccess.com:
"The solar cells on the tree were able to store enough electricity in spite of receiving no direct solar light for days at a time because of the clouds. They showed that solar trees really are a practical form of street lighting."
She said the City of Vienna will decide soon to implement this solar tree concept on other parts of the city. She also hopes it will become a main form of street lighting in Europe. When the solar tree uses an LED lighting system, it will cut down further carbon emission and save electricity bills for the local authorities.

"Street lighting consumed 10 percent of all the electricity used in Europe in 2006 or 2,000 billion KWh, and resulted in carbon emissions of 2,900 million ton."

A modification of this can be used to light the objects and shops as well.

I think this is a great concept, and the streets in the Americas can also use a similar lighting system to save energy. Google uses a similar concept to light the parking lots and generate energy by installing solar panels.

Dennis Spisak
Independent Green Party Candidate for State Representative-60th District

Camapign web-site: HTTP://votespisak.tripod.com

[jay]

What would be a good alternative energy demonstration project?  We need to show that this technology will work in the Youngstown area.