Blog posts of '2012' 'April'

Cree Inc. has developed a new product line called the XSP Series LED Street Light. These are specifically designed as street lights for cities and towns to see the fastest payback for their investment. They use 50% less energy and should last three times longer than traditional street lights. They are also much brighter, so cities can be better lit, but they also take much less energy, producing twice as many lumens per dollar than previous incarnations of LED street lights. They has an estimated lifetime of 100,000 hours, greatly reducing the need to replace light bulbs.

The lights have already been installed in Anchorage, Alaska. Acting street lighting directory of the city, Jeff Tews, is already impressed with the lights. “The new XSP Series LED street lights should make every municipality take notice,” he said. Hopefully, more cities will adopt this or similar products to light their streets. 

An exciting research project is taking place at MIT that could greatly increase the efficency of power grids and reduce CO2 emissions. Researchers have discovered that by adding just a few nano-particles of gold to copper, the rate at which copper can convert CO2 to fuel rapidly inreases.  Copper is one of the few metals that can change CO2 into hydrocarbon fuel without lots of energy. If implemented, powerplants would be able to take CO2 waste and reuse it to power the plant, instead of releasing it into the atmosphere.

Gold makes copper more stable because it is resistant to oxidation and corrosion. With just pure copper, the reaction takes much longer and runs the risk of producing carbon dioxide and folic acid. Only a little gold is needed to help copper along, and elimates the dangerous by products. This exciting discovery could mean big changes for power usage to be cleaner and less greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. 

Boston's infamous "Big Dig" Central Artery/Tunnel has been unsafe for years, partially due to the current lighting system. Fluorescent tube lights in casings made of dissimilar metals have long since rusted over--one even fell onto the road! In order to make the CA/T not only safer but also more efficient, the city of Boston has opted to switch out the current lighting system for an LED powered one!

LED tube lights in watertight plastic housing will be installed in the tunnel, providing better light and saving the city in maintenance and utility costs annually. In addition, since the lights are in plastic instead of metal, there will be no rusting or damage to the light fixtures, meaning no repeat incidents of collapsing lights.

The money from the project comes from the millions of dollars in settlements that the city has been receiving since the tunnel opened in 2006. The Big Dig, which is the largest highway construction project in history, has had many design flaws that lead to leaks and a fatal ceiling collapse.  Hopefully, a move to LED will make the tunnel safer for use.