Phillips Unveils Solar/Wind Hybrid Streetlights in Moscow
An intelligent LED street lighting system that stays dim when humans are not around but increases its luminosity when it senses people walking nearby has been unveiled.
Philips, promotes the innovative street lighting concept as an ecological street light pole. The pole adapts its shape to capture the maximum source energy from sun and wind during daytime, using this energy during the night for illumination.
Depending on weather conditions, it can alternate between solar and wind modes.
Employing ‘flower mechanics’, the Light Blossom opens its petals to collect solar energy on sunny days and reorients them upwards to harness wind energy on cloudy days which, in turn, powers the lighting pole at night.
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The ‘petals’ are so designed that they can follow the movement of the sun through the sky for maximum solar efficiency. On cloudy days, they can rotate to transfer the motion to a built-in rotor that converts the motion to energy.
On stand by mode, the Light Blossom with its integrated solar cells and wind rotors glows at a safe dim level but comes to life when its proximity sensors detect human movement switching to a higher luminous intensity.
It can provide green lighting as well as supply power back to the grid when it overproduces electricity, making it a light pole that generates rather than consumes power, according to the manufacturer.
The Netherlands-based company presented the Light Blossom in Moscow this week at its Simplicity Event 2008, an event that showcases a collection of new design concepts, presented in the form of ‘future life scenarios’.
Image credits: Royal Philips Electronics
We shouldn’t need street lights at all. It isn’t natural to stay awake after dark, and harms our basic biology. In the new world, after the “Great Depression” when we are wise and enlightened and no longer driven by corporate greed, we will need different, more healthy devices, but not anything that supports the 9 to 5 post- depression world! With the technology of the day, zero running cost, zero upkeep shelters for mankind can be built, and our needs greatly reduced, we will bw able to “work for the man’ for short period and survive healthy and happy, on our own for extended period of time. Family life will be given re-birth, love, respect and caring for one another will flourish, and we will no longer have to strive to serve the uber-rich, they will have to do for themselves. The death of the cancer of democracy is at hand, corporations are failing, and we must rejoice in the streets.We are free at last, and don’t need streetlights, because now we can sleep!
Hope they can detect fart oder as well
Its a great big beautiful tomorrow. Thank the Phillips company for reviving our sensibilities.
Would love to produce a pavilion for this company like the one at the 1958 fair. Anyone interested try toonisbureaut@msn.com .
This product is a thing of the future that shuts down some of the poor misfortunates
of this world and keeps the image of industry as a happy, positive rejoicing, in a Utopian woodstock type European and American future. Perhaps when they get to enjoy some of these illuminating fixtures those luddite losers out their
will also join the crowd of Phillip-ians - progressive
winners! Maybe they will stay up nights, visit friends and enjoy the short time they have left on Earth, or even evolve into immortal types who can appreciate these type of creative solutions.
I think they are gorgeous, but I think the most beautiful things in the world are huge oil rigs. Works of art! Companies like Philips are on the cutting edge, kudos to them!
When i visited my home town in Poland this year I found lights powered by wind and solar which the people in my town said was called hybrydowe which is hybrid in Polish. Their is a website which i checked out http://www.egl-energy.eu. They use only the sun and wind to power the light making them renewable i guess.