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

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