Wind, Solar-Powered Street Lights Only Need a Charge Once Every Four Days

May 13th, 2009 by Jeff Kart

What’s wrong with wind power and solar energy and right with coal?

Well, coal can burn around the clock, as long as you have enough of it. But the wind doesn’t blow all the time and the sun doesn’t shine all the time. Sure, you can store power in batteries, but how much?

How about enough to power an LED streetlight, without wires, that is sure to turn on every night?

There’s a French company called Windela that has crossed a streetlight with a vertical-axis wind turbine and a solar panel. It charges up during the day, when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. At night, it shines.

It also can work as a Wi-Fi relay, similar to a solar streetlight known as Starsight. Imagine it: Wi-Fi, light at night, no coal required.

According to a do-it-yourself-er who has delved into streetlight details, public lighting uses up to 12 percent of the fossil fuel produced in the world. In Fairbanks, Alaska, where it’s dark half the year, street lighting accounts for 60 percent of the city’s electricity bill, notes a New York Times’ blogger.

Windela’s product, called Windelux, lasts up to four nights without sun or wind once the batteries (in the base of the pole) are fully charged, the company says.

The hybrid streetlight received the 2009 Rethink award for the top young, innovative start-up at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Paris. The Windela Web site shows installations in France and Algeria.

More information is welcomed from French speakers.

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Tags: algeria, France, starsight, streetlight

About the Author

Jeff Kart is typing about issues in the Great Lakes, from advanced biofuels to zero-emission vehicles. Jeff is an environmental journalist and social media evangelist based in Michigan, where the summers are short, the winters are cold, and the stories are plentiful.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_NBN7OWYCV7R6HYV4NCWIEQSQBE Eddy Kasenda

By any chance are you represented in Jakarta / Indonesia…….
http://www.garden-lighting-outlet.co.uk Outdoor Garden Lighting

Hey this is quite a nice post. I really like this concept.
I would love to know about the pricing for these lights. I am genuinely interested in it.
Janet Cafferata

Please advise price and availability. Any deals for small-town Saskatchewan??
amm

price?
amm

price?
amm

Please provide a price for the solar/wind lights for streets.

we need lights for a city of 1 million in Mexico.

Thank you,

Dr. Arturo Ramirez Adan
amm

Please provide a price for the solar/wind lights for streets.

we need lights for a city of 1 million in Mexico.

Thank you,

Dr. Arturo Ramirez Adan
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3KGGX6UMQQQH5RH7LXJ34EQJMY mike
  
  Dr. Arturo Ramirez Adan i had ran across your post. As many have noticed many of these solar powered street lights, are costly and do not put out very many looms. We have just developed a light for a few customers of hours and the new technology allowed us to create a affordable street light that generates 30,000 to our most powerful 40,000 lumens. the last 3 to 4 days and we can customize to the design and pole to suite your needs. If your still searching for lights write me an email at tiptoprestorationnc@yahoo.com i would love our spreadsheets over to you as well.
  
  thank you,
  
  Mike Skonieczny
Pingback: Mission Viejo Tests New BigBelly Solar Powered Trash Compactors : CleanTechnica
http://automation.liveautomatic.com Insteon

I love this idea, and it’s quite attractive as far as energy efficient solutions go. Those unaware of it’s use may see it as an artwork piece, especially in cities where the chosen style is modern/industrial (Calgary AB for example).
http://automation.liveautomatic.com Insteon

I love this idea, and it’s quite attractive as far as energy efficient solutions go. Those unaware of it’s use may see it as an artwork piece, especially in cities where the chosen style is modern/industrial (Calgary AB for example).
http://www.decolightco.biz decorate your home

Solar-Powered Street Lights Only Need a Charge Once Every Four Days thats a very good idea. so we can use these lights for occasion like christmas. Christmas is the festival of lights, joys and sweets. Animated outdoor christmas decrotaion looking flashy and eye catching.we can use these solar lights for decoration as these need a charge once every four days.
http://www.decolightco.biz decorate your home

Solar-Powered Street Lights Only Need a Charge Once Every Four Days thats a very good idea. so we can use these lights for occasion like christmas. Christmas is the festival of lights, joys and sweets. Animated outdoor christmas decrotaion looking flashy and eye catching.we can use these solar lights for decoration as these need a charge once every four days.
Uncle B

In the very near future all people will be implanted with RFI ID devices and street lights will be unnecessary, only RFI ID readers! We will easily round up the criminal mis-fits, and sterilize them according to population control laws coming to the U.S.A.and imposed by our Chinese overlords, with support from the next Repuglican Right wing platform! We will also save a fortune in burglar devices but will require more policemen to apprehend the larger number of crooks to be caught. Guns will be banned outright, and very severe sentences will become normal, even more death sentences as ID will be certain, and feeding and breeding inferior folk nonsensical to say the least! LED super-lights in combination with astoundingly effective solar cells, and combined with effective new batteries will provide lighting everywhere, not just outdoors, night shifts will disappear anyway due to new medical evidence that they are harmful to humans, and Windpower on “Manhatten Project” scale will take over power generation alongside it’s sister, Solar/Thermal operations in the desert parts of the nation, Nuclear power will be reserved for the new military, and wave and tidal power will feed the huge cities along the seashores, and regenerate salt water to fresh for drinking only, as what we now call sewage will become a most valued source of bio-gassed fuel and top-soil building fertilizers! Battery cars will abound, smaller models for smaller people, as the “Smoke-Stack Era” masculinity image fades and is replaced by the new information age image,. American football will die out, replaced by ping-pong, Chess, and Soccer, and a huge number of computer games, And yes, Street-lights will fade into the past, a relic of more primative times for man!
Uncle B

In the very near future all people will be implanted with RFI ID devices and street lights will be unnecessary, only RFI ID readers! We will easily round up the criminal mis-fits, and sterilize them according to population control laws coming to the U.S.A.and imposed by our Chinese overlords, with support from the next Repuglican Right wing platform! We will also save a fortune in burglar devices but will require more policemen to apprehend the larger number of crooks to be caught. Guns will be banned outright, and very severe sentences will become normal, even more death sentences as ID will be certain, and feeding and breeding inferior folk nonsensical to say the least! LED super-lights in combination with astoundingly effective solar cells, and combined with effective new batteries will provide lighting everywhere, not just outdoors, night shifts will disappear anyway due to new medical evidence that they are harmful to humans, and Windpower on “Manhatten Project” scale will take over power generation alongside it’s sister, Solar/Thermal operations in the desert parts of the nation, Nuclear power will be reserved for the new military, and wave and tidal power will feed the huge cities along the seashores, and regenerate salt water to fresh for drinking only, as what we now call sewage will become a most valued source of bio-gassed fuel and top-soil building fertilizers! Battery cars will abound, smaller models for smaller people, as the “Smoke-Stack Era” masculinity image fades and is replaced by the new information age image,. American football will die out, replaced by ping-pong, Chess, and Soccer, and a huge number of computer games, And yes, Street-lights will fade into the past, a relic of more primative times for man!
http://virgintech.org Shahab khan

thats quite great! Really!
http://virgintech.org Shahab khan

thats quite great! Really!
http://jeffkart.com jeff

Good idea. What about LEDs with sensors on them that only turn on when needed? Same thing for parking lots at big box stores. Put banks of lights in. Only turn on the ones you “need.” Put the others on a sensor.
http://jeffkart.com jeff

Good idea. What about LEDs with sensors on them that only turn on when needed? Same thing for parking lots at big box stores. Put banks of lights in. Only turn on the ones you “need.” Put the others on a sensor.
http://blog.mapawatt.com Chris Kaiser

In addition to street lights, I think the market for LED parking deck lights will be huge. How many times do you drive by a parking deck, see only a few cars in it, yet hundreds of lights on! This is an enormous waste of power!

The lights have to stay on for safety reasons, but there is no reason they can’t be LED.

http://blog.mapawatt.com/category/conservation/lighting/
http://blog.mapawatt.com Chris Kaiser

In addition to street lights, I think the market for LED parking deck lights will be huge. How many times do you drive by a parking deck, see only a few cars in it, yet hundreds of lights on! This is an enormous waste of power!

The lights have to stay on for safety reasons, but there is no reason they can’t be LED.

http://blog.mapawatt.com/category/conservation/lighting/