With the world getting more and more conscious about the deteriorating condition of the environment, green technology is gaining preference in every field of life. So, how could the street lighting industry remain untouched? Boosting this green trend here are a few futuristic concept lighting solutions for urban streets, which will prevent you from falling into a manhole after a late night booze party without taking its toll on the environment.
1. Night Owl:
To keep city lanes and highways illuminated in the future, industrial designer Edan Kurzweil has come up with a solar powered lighting concept known as the Night Owl. The path and street lighting units are illuminated via high-output LED clusters that rely on batteries charged by large flexible polymer solar films incorporated on the top of the lights. The lights would also be hardwired into the city’s power grid to return any additional solar energy back to the city or to draw minimal charging power during long winters, or extended periods of time without sunlight.
2. Turbine Light:
We’re living in an era wherein the already scarce renewable energy resources are going scarcer than they were ever. Number of vehicles on road is asking to provide more highway lighting, electrical needs and more alternative energy. All these factors have led the US-based TAK Studio to offerTurbine Light that produces renewable energy from the air turbulence caused by passing traffic. The contraption or conception channelizes the electronic energy to illuminate the way of the passing vehicles that make these lights to glow. The concept eyes a spot at the Greener Gadgets Design Competition finals.
3. Invisible Streetlight:
Designed by Johgoh Lee, the Invisible Streetlight is a solar powered street light that imitates leaves and can be hidden among natural plants on the sides of streets. These lights that blend beautifully with the leaves comprise f a double injection of silicon, aluminum materials and a photo capacitor that combines photoelectric and storage functions in a single unit. Giving a spectacular view, they collect energy all day and illuminate all night long.
4. Nature Power Light Your Road:
When it comes to harnessing solar energy, all systems remain dumb during a cloudy day, same happens with wind generators during a clear day when the wind isn’t blowing. Industrial designers Zhou Qian and Tao Ma have tried to bring both these renewable 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. Whatever energy the combination generates, is stored in onboard batteries, which is then relayed to a set of LED lights after dark.
5. Light Tree:
Designer Omar I. Huerta Cardoso has beautifully amalgamated hydroponic techniques with the latest solar cell technology to form a street lighting solution. Dubbed the “Light Tree”, the concept is an innovative tree-like street lamp that uses nanotube solar cells to light up the ultra-bright LEDs at night. It has water inside that not only conduces the light generated by the LEDs, but also feeds the seeds placed at the top extremities of the concept that will grow to become healthy plants, offering the real tree look to the concept.
6. Light Blossom:
“Light Blossom” is a concept lighting solution that would give you LED-lit streets with the power of the sun and wind. Designed by Philips, 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. As night falls, these lights get into a “stand-by” mode, and keep emitting the minimum light required for safety. But 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.
7. Light Flower:
Boosting the green trend, a new small, but charming concept, “Light Flower,” has emerged from the creative mind of designer Djordje Cukanovic ChuDes. The concept is simple and runs on wind power. The flower-like design includes very sensitive propellers that gain motion even on the slightest touch of wind. Through these propellers it generates electricity to be stored in the battery. A light sensor will switch it on and off automatically depending upon the time, day or night.
8. The Flow:
The Flow is a concept lighting solution for far-flung places, especially sea shores where sourcing grid electricity is not that easy. Designers over at Igendesign have come up with a structure finished in bamboo that supports energy-efficient LED lamps, wires and the dynamo, the self-maintaining light works on the principle of vertical axis wind turbine and seizes the wind for all directions to power the lamp after dark. The LEDs are located towards the end of the blades forming either a continuous lighting surface or slow waving movements, according to the speed of the rotation.
9. Trash-powered lamppost:
Looking at the piles of waste, who would have imagined that it could also help us light our streets? Well, Haneum Lee has done just that. The ingenious designer has come up with a lamppost concept that composts trash and uses the methane byproduct as a fuel to power the lamps.
10. Energy Seed:
Aren’t we all aware of the adverse effects of alkaline batteries on our environment? But, still we use them and finally set them to the landfills where their toxic innards seep into the earth. To divert these deadly batteries from landfills, Sungwoo Park and Sunhee Kim have come out with a rather smart solution. Called the “Energy Seed”, the LED street lighting concept harness the leftover energy from the batteries and uses it to power the LED light.
11. Hybrid wind and solar powered street lamp:
Street lighting is no more restricted to boring metal poles there is more to it. Urban Green Energy brings beauty and sustainability to streetlights. The stylish hybrid wind and solar powered street lampconcept is self-powered by renewable energy. It consists of a wind turbine placed just above the solar array. Both these sources of clean energy generates up to 380 W of power. The energy produces is stored in the battery that helps in illuminating the Led lamp at night.
12. Embryo:
Taking inspiration from a living sprout Harsha Vardhan has designed a concept that not only generates energy for itself, but also for other needs. Dubbed the “Embryo”, the streetlight concept design harvests solar and wind energy through a single structure. The flexible photovoltaic cell on the top of the hood-like roof and an included wind turbine will harness 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.
