How Cool Is This??? "Seagull" Solar and Wind Powered StreetLights In Tokyo

Submitted by Charles Frost on Thu, 01/31/2008 - 20:35.

 

Solar and Wind Powered Street Lights In Tokyo

We just wrote about the new LED streelights in Ann Arbor. Now we find these self-contained streetlights that generate 100% of their power from the sun and the wind. During the day, solar power is stored in a battery at the base of the light pole. At night, they illuminate while continuing to generate power via a small vertical-axis wind turbine. The streetlights, dubbed “seagulls”, were spotted in Tokyo outside the Panasonic Center by Hyperexperience. Here’s a video clip of the wind turbine in action.

From: http://www.metaefficient.com/lighting/solar-and-wind-powered-streetlights-from-japan.html#more-1159

 

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solar power for Cleveland

I know there must be an answer, but, if we've only had two sunny days since Nov. 1st, are these hybrid lights?  I've heard a lot of comments on how intrusive looking solar windmills would be if somehow we were able to incorporate them into our neighborhoods (I love the idea).  These seagulls could save us a lot of money no?  And they look great!

It's so simple, it's almost

It's so simple, it's almost stupid. Look around the globe to see what other countries, cities are doing to access green power. Then build an example of that here. Where? The Science Center next to the wind turbine we already have, any one of our college campuses or business malls. To see one working on your own turf beats years and months of studies and fuels the public motive for going green. On the college campus, students could be challenged to design it better. Meanwhile we could plan to build and assemble them here instead of franchising a foreign company or importing. Hey, put one in my back yard to offset my energy cost. It even looks safe for low flying birds and squirrels. 

There is that Hale Farm and Village to take us back to a simpler past, we need a Green Farm and Village to model, test and display green technology for the future. You could build it in Lorain, I would be happy and inspired. All that from "seagull" wind turban streetlights.