Light Cue 23

Solar Sunday is my weekly roundup of renewable energy and energy efficient lighting news from around the web. It’s quite exciting this week!

Whole City Goes LED

We haven’t been giving Ann Arbor, Michigan enough attention and the city deserves it! Last year Ann Arbor joined forces with LED manufacturer Cree, Inc, on an ever-expanding citywide LED initiative to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. With a recent retrofit contract signed with Lumecon, Ann Arbor is on its way to being the first U.S. city to light up its downtown with 100% LED technology!

The city strung its holiday cheer with about 114,000 LED lights and plans to convert all of its downtown public lighting starting with more than 1,000 LED streetlights. The effort is aligned with other North American cities like Raleigh, N.C., and Toronto, which have both started similar energy-saving efforts.

When Ann Arbor reaches its ambitious goal, city officials expect to see energy use for public lighting cut in half and a reduction of 2,425 tons CO2 annually. The city also expects a short payback of 3.8 years on its investment, which was funded in part with a $630,000 grant from the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority.

Conceptual Car saves energy and makes the streets safer

Ross Lovegrove’s Car on a Stick concept takes multi-tasking to extremes. The latest idea from the former Apple and Sony designer, who has quite a penchant for solar-powered thingies is a solar-powered transport pod that can carry up to four people, plus shopping bags, that can be stored in an ingenious fashion.

A telescopic pole beneath the vehicle enables the car on a stick to be raised when not in use, keeping it off the road and transforming it into a street light. Sat-nav equipped, the bubble cars respond to voice commands and gather energy via a solar canopy on the roof.

Air Tree – Eat CO2 and Generate clean power

Choose the right LEDs with simple web app

Future Lighting Solutions (www.futurelightingsolutions.com), a division of Future Electronics, today launched the industry’s first web-based tool specifically designed to enable faster, easier integration of high power LUXEON® LEDs into new lighting systems. The LED Light Engine Selector Web Tool™ brings users to within just five easy steps of a solid-state lighting system by offering a broad range of off-the-shelf LUXEON LED light engines.

This Selector Web Tool allows users to specify fundamental parameters of their solution – such as color, form factor, optics, power and accessories – through simple menu options. The tool then guides the user through the selection process for a light engine and associated parts, providing a summary report with items and quantities, photos, datasheets, and a link directly to the Future Electronics Component Super Store to simplify on-line ordering.

Europe Leads Climate Change

Plans which would make Europe a world leader in tackling climate change and renewable energy policy were released by the European Commission on Wednesday.

The proposal describes how the European Union can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 20% below 1990 levels by 2020.

The package has been called “brave” by the Dutch environment agency and has been welcomed by the UK government, which says the package will give industry the secure framework it needs to build a low-carbon economy.

World’s Greenest Office Building

The home of the Eiffel Tower is getting a new architectural innovation- and a green one at that. The Energy Plus office building, to be located outside of Paris, is designed to consume no electricity other than that which it creates itself. This zero-energy building, according to the designers, will be the greenest office building ever created.