Solar Power: Traffic Lights
Solar Power: Traffic Lights
'Green' traffic lights are not a new idea. The move to LED traffic lights is already offering significant savings on both energy consumption and costs. Berlin already derives 100% of their electricity for traffic control from renewable sources. India has combined both these attributes into a single traffic system. South African's first solar powered traffic light intersection was unveiled a few years ago. The main benefit being that traffic flows will be free of disruption when inevitable power failures occur.
Some solar-powered traffic signals have been previously provided by private investors. Sometimes costs were defrayed by allowing limited advertising on the lights. Certainly one way of getting motorists attention, but not likely to improve road safety. But the extensive use of renewable sources to power traffic lights is still very limited.
Now here’s a creative design that is not only green, but also cost-effective, which might encourage installation of solar-powered traffic systems. Solar Traffic Light has been designed to include Discolor LED technology, essentially hosting all the three colors of the lights within a single unit. The lights source power from the solar panel on top of the unit, which is elegantly designed as a hood.
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January 23rd, 2010 - 01:25
Not necessarily. Look closely at the third picture. The green light is an open ring. The red is probably a solid circle, and the amber something else, perhaps an X. That makes it very obvious what is what.