Save up to 80% with DOTS and its Partner Paradox Engineering – MineabeaMitsumi

Mitigate Light pollution and Save up to 80% of power and greenhouse emissions with DOTS and its Partner Paradox Engineering -MineabeaMitsumi

Indonesia with several major cities is faced with major pollution challenges. The next few years will be critical for us to combat this and reverse the trend to make our cities more liveable and our communities more healthier. Below information from our Partner Paradox Engineering – MineabeaMitsumi on how they are addressing this challenge

Paris is acknowledged to have installed the world’s first electric streetlights back in 1878. Three years later, 4,000 electric lamps were in use in the French capital and gas lanterns were gradually abandoned. Today, there are about 326 million streetlights all over the world, and this should grow to over 361 million by 2030. About a quarter of all streetlights globally have already been converted to LEDs and over 10 million have been connected to smart networks.

If we sum streetlights to lights beaming from homes, skyscrapers, shops, office buildings, and billboards, it is easy to understand our cities are over illuminated. Light pollution – which scientists define as the alteration of night natural lighting levels caused by anthropogenic sources of light – affects more than 80% of the world and more than 99% of the U.S. and European populations. The Milky Way is hidden for more than one-third of humanity, including 60% of Europeans and nearly 80% of North Americans.

Authoritative bodies such as the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) are vocal in asking for urgent intervention to reduce the skyglow, the brightening of the night sky over inhabited areas. Many cities are discussing possible measures: in the US, the City of Pittsburgh presented a “Dark Sky Lighting” ordinance to introduce strict criteria for all newly constructed and renovated facilities and parks, and a mandate for all streetlights to utilize Dark Sky-compliant fixtures. The ordinance should be discussed later this month and might serve as a model for other municipalities looking to effectively reduce light pollution.

Light pollution has a remarkable financial and environmental impact. IDA estimates a third of all outdoor lighting in the US is wasted, costing facility owners some 3.3 billion USD annually and releasing 21 million tons of carbon emissions annually. But the widespread use of artificial light is also proven to interfere with people’s mental and physical health, as well as with wildlife and the natural habitats of plants.

The immediate solution we might think of – let’s turn out every light at night – is not such viable. Modern life requires lighting, specifically night street lighting is essential to make road mobility secure and improve public safety. In 2018, the New York City Crime Lab investigated some 80 public housing developments for a period of six months, measuring the effects of the introduction of new streetlights in around half of them. The study found that index crimes decreased by 7%, while night crimes dropped about 39%.

So, the real challenge is to responsibly and intelligently manage outdoor lighting to reduce pollution without jeopardizing quality of service. As reported by BBC, Tucson, Arizona, converted nearly 20,000 sodium street lights to dimmable, energy efficient LED lamps. Light pollution due to streetlights reduced from 18% to 13%. Since 2018 the city has cut its total light emissions by 7% and its annual energy bills by 2 million USD. Additional measures are being implemented to switch off advertising billboards, floodlights, buildings, and sports stadiums.

PE Smart Urban Network is our performing and reliable IoT platform for Smart Lighting: it allows to connect and control districts, streets, and even single lamps from a central management system, turning lights on/off and dimming them according to programmed schedules, environmental conditions or on demand.

Thanks to PE Smart Urban Network, cities can mitigate light pollution and save up to 80% of power and greenhouse emissions: learn more about our solution and join our community to access white papers, brochures, videos, and other insightful resources.

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