Philips Designs the 'Light Blossom,' an Intelligent Street Light Concept
October 17, 2008 by Lisa Zyga
The Light Blossom collects energy from the sun and wind during the day. At night, the device glows dimly when no one is around, and brighter when it senses motion, such as people walking nearby. Image: Pocket-Lint.
Designing nighttime lighting solutions for urban areas presents a challenge for city planners. Too much light results in light pollution - not just limiting the enjoyment of stargazers, but also interfering with the routines of plants and animals. On the other hand, having too little light threatens a neighborhood's overall safety.
One solution to the urban lighting problem is a new concept called "Light Blossom," designed by Philips Electronics. Light Blossom is an intelligent LED lighting system that can provide bright light when it senses people walking nearby, and decrease its luminosity when people aren't around. The technology is also energy-efficient and operates off the grid, gathering solar and wind energy during the day to use for light at night.
During the day, Light Blossom works similar to a flower, opening its "petals" to collect solar energy. As the sun moves across the sky, the petals gradually reorient themselves so they're facing the sun head-on to operate at maximum efficiency, similar to a sunflower.
On cloudy days when the wind is strong, the Light Blossom automatically converts its petals into an upward, open position that allows them to catch the wind. As the petals rotate, they transfer the motion to a built-in rotor that converts the motion to energy.
The Light Blossom continuously switches between solar and wind modes depending on weather conditions. It also displays its energy-collecting flow on its "trunk," or pole, with a decorative light for passers-by to see.
When the sun sets, the Light Blossom's LEDs automatically turn on, illuminating the ground below it. Philips claims that the downward-facing lamp design minimizes light pollution enough to enable people to see the stars in some areas. When people pass by the light, proximity sensors detect their movement and the LEDs switch from dim stand-by mode to a higher-intensity light.
Philips says that the Light Blossom's energy-efficient LEDs use just half of the energy of a traditional street light to produce the same light output. Because the device doesn´t require power infrastructure, rural communities without electricity could install Light Blossoms without investing in grid infrastructure. In urban communities, the devices could even supply power back to the grid when they generate an excess of energy, making the Light Blossom a light pole that generates rather than consumes power.
Philips unveiled the Light Blossom concept earlier this week at its 2008 Philips Simplicity Event, held in Moscow, Russia.
More information: Philips
Oct 22, 2009 |
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Existing lighting is used as a load leveler for the generators. If the existing lighting systems are replaced with things like this a different operating concept will have to be applied to generating plants, i.e. some type of generation for peak loading - good luck! That will take a generation or 2.
cute concept, but practical?????
Thank you, deatopmg, for opening up my eyes.
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Beyond that... I like the idea and aesthetics.
Too easy to break...
But Solar LED Motion = good idea...
I hope that sarcasm, but it's a little hard to tell with the green movement today.
PV is expensive enough as it is without having to form it to the shape of a turbine blade, having it spin around at high velocity and facing in some random direction that's uncorrelated with the direction of the sun(wind turbines yaw freely to match the direction of the wind).
Why?
Existing street lights use various kinds of gas discharge lamps and they all beat commercially available LEDs in luminous efficacy. Low pressure sodium lights are especially good with 180-200 lm/W.
However, High Pressure Sodium Lights are more commonly used, and the performance of such lights has now been equalled by the newest LEDs. As for cost, LEDs have a much longer lifespan, so it requires fewer maintenance workers (at 25 bucks an hour, lounging around), but they're more expensive to initially purchase.
I haven't seen any estimates on the long term costs of high efficiency LEDs vs HPS lights, so who knows what the final cost difference will turn out to be.
As far as I know, the best commercially available white(or white-ish, I don't care too much about CRI for street lighting) LEDs reach efficiencies of 100-110 lm/W as opposed to 140-150 lm/W for the best HPS.
LEDs win hands-down only if you include motion sensors to toggle the brightness up and down; HPS deals badly with being dimmed.
Basically, the way I see it, humans tend not to change their ways until a crisis even if we can see the crisis approaching.
We also have a habit of inventing crisis when none exists in order to get our fellow humans to do our will, and "toe the line" to suit our own political/personal ends.
One of the oldest tricks in the book...
As to 'solar powered', that's limited to the Solar Constant = 1350 W m^-2 and about 4 - 6 kWh m^-2 per day.
Wind powered? Any of these greenies prating here know what is the average wind duty cycle?
Yup. The newest LEDs (pre-market) have hit 150 lu/m now. They're really progressing quickly (FINALLY!) now.
As for the power companies... the use of existing lights for power leveling on the grid is no excuse to resist the change of your generator systems or procedures. Be a part of the solution. You have a head start.
Secondly to those who say that low pressure sodium is more efficacious, I say a word rhyming with rowlocks. Sure lumens per watt, more comes out of a SOX lamp however the light is less controllable, i.e. significantly more waste plus with a start up time of over 5 minutes this source could never be considered for "on demand" lighting and would therefore by default have to be dusk to dawn use only. When this is considered the 180 lumens/watt becomes insignificant.