Street Lights Meet German Engineering

December 23, 2008

One town in northwest Germany is turning off its street lights at 9 pm to save electricity and money. Rather than imposing an unintentional curfew, the move is giving residents on-demand lighting.

The BBC reports that in Doerentrup a local engineer came up with a system so that anyone wanting see the way registers for free online, dials a central number, punches in a street code, and the lights they need will come on for several minutes. Although residents pay for the calls, the town collectively saves money on electricity.

"It doesn't matter when I get home because I can switch on the lights in the street at any time," one elderly resident tells the BBC. That, and I'll bet she feels like she's got superpowers. Here's the video showing how it works.

While this wouldn't be ideal for large metropolitan areas, especially the city that never sleeps, on-demand lighting could be an energy-smart move for budget-crunched towns in the United States.

Image: Screenshot from the BBC broadcast.

Comments

[tabatha]

Great idea!

This not only saves energy, but it improves the ambience. There's nothing worse than the glare of all those street lights.

And, this helps bird species. So many migratory birds are attracted to lights as they fly great distances during migration (mostly at night), and perish.

Lastly, this helps humans appreciate the celestial night skies.

It's getting to the point where visitors to California's Death Valley desert park can no longer see the stars at night, due to light pollution from Las Vegas.

The city of Chicago, USA, is pretty progressive: it's got a lights out policy; wish other US cities would follow.

[Steaming Pile]

And why can't they just put motion sensors in the street lamps that shut them off after a certain period of inactivity? Why should we have to use our cell phones to turn them on? My porch light is on a motion sensor, and it takes more than someone's cat prowling around to turn it on. This is a system only a geek could love. Too much technology used improperly, if you ask me.