Proeftuinendelft - Intelligent street lighting

INTELLIGENT STREET LIGHTNING Intelligent street lighting The TU Delft is testing a system on its university campus with intelligent streetlights that use up to 80 percent less electricity than regular street lighting. Besides, this system is less expensive regarding maintenance costs.

The system consists of street lights with LED lighting, surround sensors and wireless communication. The street lights will dim whenever there are no cars, cyclists or pedestrians around. They will communicate wirelessly with each other and with a central station. The system has been developed by alumnus of Management of Technology, Chintan Shah, who won a competition with it in 2010. The competition was held to encourage more efficient energy usage at the university campus.

Save 80 percent electricity In the Netherlands more than 300 million euro is spent on the energy for street lighting.

This street lighting also produces an emission of 1,6 million tons of CO2. The lights are always on at full strength regardless of if there is traffic.The intelligent street lighting system of Chintan Shah can, in comparison to the current street lighting, save 80 percent of energy and CO2 emission. It’s less expensive in maintenance and furthermore it can contribute to a solution of regarding light pollution.

A - safe - bundle of light Shah’s system consists of electronics that can be installed to every - dimmable - street light. At first sight the system looks like a garden light with a sensor. But there are striking differences. With Shah’s system all surrounding street lights will gleam whenever someone approaches. Besides, the lights never dim totally. They are dimmed to around 20 percent of the regular strength. In a way traffic (pedestrian or otherwise) moves through a - safe - bundle of light. As a bonus the lamps that are broken communicates with the central station which makes maintenance more efficient and less expensive than it is now.

Introduction to the market The pilot at the TU Delft campus is meant to test and tune the system. The lamps should not shine brighter whenever a branch sways or a cat comes by. Shah is working on the introduction to the market of his system with his spin out company Tvilight and expects to be profitable within three to five years.

Contest The prize Chintan Sha won ni 2010 at the Campus Energy Challenge was that this pilot would be realized at the campus. The Campus Energy Challenge was a contest for students of the TU Delft who had to come up with ideas to make energy usage more efficient at the university campus. The contest was an initiative of the Delft Energy Initiative. This is the opening to all the energy research and education of the TU Delft.

Besides, it stimulates new projects regarding energy.