Welcome ! As a young French Marketing professional with a Master's in International Management I have been selecting since January 2007 the latest headlines and best researches on sustainable development, climate change, cleantech and the world energy sector. Sounds great ? Don't hesitate to subscribe now !
Incandescent light bulbs are a relic of the past, a vastly inefficient past. Modern alternatives like CFLs and LEDs consume five to ten times less energy. For these reasons, the European Union or Australia have already phased them out.
More countries will be doing the same, namingly the United States and China. The latter will start banning 100-watt bulbs in October 2012. Last year over a billion of these bulbs were sold in the People’s Republic.
To Grist : ” The ban will save China 48 billion kilowatt hours of power per year. Which, if I’m doing my math right, is the equivalent of almost 100 nuclear reactors or large coal-fired power plants. “
To GOOD : ” One German physicist, Harald Haas, has come up with a solution he calls “data through illumination” (…) by sending data through an LED lightbulb that varies in intensity faster than the human eye can follow.”
” It’s the same idea behind infrared remote controls, but far more powerful. Haas says his invention, which he calls D-Light, can produce data rates faster than (…) your average broadband connection. ”
” He envisions a future where data for laptops and smartphones is transmitted through the light in a room. And security would be a snap—if you can’t see the light, you can’t access the data. “ Continue »
The city of Barcelona and Spanish utility Endesa have been installing smart LED lightning systems that automatically switch themselves off when no one is around. This enables the city to cut by 30 percent its electricity consumption.
I really would like this idea to spread across Europe and even the entire world. Indeed, how many plants are used only to light streets unnecessarily? This would drastically cut costs and would go far beyond the Earth Hour…
Last but not least, this would also improve the night sky quality drastically. As we have seen previoulsy, darker skies would benefit Nature and astronomers alike. Continue »
The US Department of Energy released last week an interesting study on how LED lightning could enable America to save $120 billion (88 billion euros) over the next 20 years. To Ecogeek :
” The cumulative savings of widespread adoption of this technology over the next 20 years would be about 1.500 terawatt-hours (…) The savings would eliminate the need for 24 new large power plants.”
What occurs in lightning should concern all economic sectors : transportation, housing, appliances, industy… Energy conservation and efficiency are the best solutions to climate change and energy scarcity.
CFLs consume up to five time less energy than traditional incandescent and halogen bulbs. This convinced several countries including the European Union and India to increasingly use them.
Now LEDs are slowly reaching the markets. Consuming up to half the energy of CFLs they come in all shapes and colors. Even if they are still very expensive, they can last 35,000 hours and can lead to substantial savings over their lifetime.
So if further to my post on decreasing your electricity use you are switching off your incandescents, why not choosing directly LEDs ? You will find below a list of the main advantages. Continue »
The European Union decided last week to ban all incandescent light bulbs by 2010. This occurs as Australia, Cuba and the Philippines did the same last year.
This is important as the EU and its 27 members accounts for nearly half a billion inhabitants. This law is due to cut by sixty percent the amount of energy used for lightning.
The WWF did more calculations on the projected savings induced by such a move toward sustainability and energy conservation. Continue »
