 |
| LED Street Light |
How Many Environmentally/Ecologically Friendly Energy Inventions?
Part 3 in our Environmentally Friendly Series
We continue our review of recent environmentally friendly patents with the Energy Index.
Slightly more than half of the Energy patents in this survey are related to illumination, electrochemistry, prime-mover dynamos (motors, turbines, and the like), or electric lamps.
The Daily Energy Report estimates that “street lighting costs represent one of the largest components of a city government’s utility bill, often accounting for 10 to 38 percent of the total tab . . . the energy used by street lighting installations accounts for the third largest use of power in local governments . . . On a national level . . . there are nearly 35 million street lights in the United States, and that [number] accounts for about 1 percent of all electricity used nationally.”
Xuliang Li (Dongguan, Peoples Republic of China) attempts to reduce street lighting energy requirements through the used of LED street lights, as described in Patent Number 7,832,898, “Environmentally friendly street lamps.” Assigned to Dongguan Kingsun Optoelectronic Co., Ltd (Hengjiangxia Village, Changping Town, Dongguan, Peoples Republic of China), is classified by the USPTO as 362/249.02 for illumination by plural light sources with a support having a light emitting diode. The environmental friendliness of Li’s invention arises from its configuration, intended to reduce undesirable light dispersion.
If brought to market, this would certainly be an improvement over the old high intensity mercury-vapor lights.
