Nov 13 2007
LEDs are lighting the streets of Banff in Canada as part of a pilot project with Osram.
Osram has joined forces with the Canadian town of Banff in a project to convert its street lighting to LEDs. Osram hopes that the knowledge gained from this scheme will speed up the uptake of LED lighting.
"For the first time we are able to observe the use of LEDs in a day-to-day situation virtually under the laboratory conditions of a small town," said Rudiger Muller, CEO at Osram Opto Semiconductors. "We expect LEDs to become more and more popular in the medium term for street lighting."
To date, eight streetlights have been upgraded to LEDs, which has reduced the energy consumption by 36 %, and more streetlights will follow. "This project gives us an immediate insight into the ecological and economic effects of our LEDs on the community," said Muller.
One of the major challenges for the Osram engineers was designing a lens that directs the light from the LED down onto the street and not into the surroundings or sky. The changeover increases the lifetime of the streetlights from 15,000 hours to up to 50,000 hours using LEDs. This reduces maintenance costs, electricity consumption and CO2 emissions.
"We are very excited to be working with Osram Opto Semiconductors on this LED lighting project to explore alternative lighting solutions," said Mayor of Banff John Stutz. "Collaborations such as these are essential especially given rising energy costs and environmental concerns."