AUG 06

Solar streetlamps are gaining in popularity. It’s one of the easiest ways for a city to green up in a noticeable way. Japan is even pushing the bar by setting up streetlamps powered by both wind and solar. While it’s (relatively) easy to slap a solar panel on a streetlamp and call it a good day’s work, it’s nice to take the time to add a little style or pizzazz. Vienna, for instance, has some pretty daring sculpture-ish “trees” as streetlamps. Seriously cool stuff for an urban setting. But what if you want something a little more subtle – something that blends in? That’s where Jongoh Lee’s Invisible Streetlight comes in.

Going more along the lines of solar that mimics plants – and not just in the solar-collection sense – Lee has created a concept for solar lights that blend into tree-lined paths and sidewalks. Creating a beautiful, romantic evening setting, the lamps wind around existing branches, collect light during the day, and illuminate walkways at night. Since the lights use the trees as support, they don’t need additional poles that would just increase the urban-ness of the scene.

I’m not sure how much sunlight they’d be able to collect, being installed under trees and all, so they probably wouldn’t last long into the night. So there’s that tiny detail to address, which perhaps will be solved with the increasing efficiency of solar we’re seeing. However, the concept earned an IDEA award, and I hope that’s the first sign that these will eventually make their way on to city streets and park paths.

Via Inhabitat

Comments (5)

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written by hillary, August 06, 2008

a town just a half hour away from my house has solar powered streetlights... it was awesome. they look cool too. Greenwich in upstate NY.

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wow
written by Luke, August 06, 2008

thats a really great idea.

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neat
written by David, August 06, 2008

awesome!

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great
written by sunil khemaney, August 07, 2008

nice.

there is an interesting artice on a solar technology breakthrough. the answer to cheaper and more practical solar lighting that will work even when there is no sun may be here. You may want to read it:

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/oxygen-0731.html

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Low tech alternative
written by Brent, August 07, 2008

How about just transitioning to a "use what you need" mentality first. Imagine if streetlights across the nation just lit up enough to keep the street/highway safe instead of trying to light them up like a K-Mart parking lot. A modest reduction of 500 watts per sq. block for just a 100x100 block area in each of 50 states (assuming 8 hours of streetlights) would save 2,000,000,000 (that's billion) watt hours a day. And that's for one small area of one city in each state.

I'd like to see more focus on reducing energy with existing, obvious, duh technology alongside new technologies.

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