City of Sustainability Gets Solar Powered LED Streetlights

Masdar - City of sustainability

Masdar, 17 kilometres south-east of the city of Abu Dhabi, is a city built by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company as a project. The idea is to make this city entirely dependent on solar energy and other renewable energy sources and as such Masdar will be the world’s first sustainable, zero-carbon, zero-waste city!

The latest news from Masdar is that the city will be using solar-powered LED streetlights to illuminate its roadways at night.

The technology…

For this has been purchased from the Massachusetts-based company SolarOne Solutions. These lights that light up at night will be powered by sunlight during the day.

Masdar…

Is a city spread over an area of 6.3 square kilometers. About 50,000 people and 1,500 commercial businesses inhabit this carbon neutral community.

Apart from the roadways the lights from SolarOne Solutions will provide lighting for driveways and parking lots in the community as well.

SolarOne streetlights…

Are powered by the energy of the sun and therefore they are independent of any electrical grid. As a result no underground cabling or ducting is necessary to install them. These lights also offer a far more pleasant broad, white light that enhances visual comfort compared to the intense, high pressure yellow sodium lights that light up the city of Abu Dhabi.

Solar-powered LED street light roadside installation (Image via: SolarOne)

In addition…

To all this the SolarOne streetlights also come with an intelligent management system called So-Bright which enables the installed lights to survive several days of harsh weather conditions. This was put to the test when the city experienced a sandstorm and several cloudy days. The only lights that remained lit following this were of course the SolarOne streetlights.