Renewable Energy - Shedding Light on the World.
by Steven Randall
The simple task of changing a light bulb in my office last week (followed by two more in quick succession thanks to cheap bulbs) reminded me of some material I read recently concerning the task of creating Light ...
...in our modern environment. It's a simple, almost automatic thing for us, but not so simple if you're in India, Africa or one of many other developing places in the world.
Just what does light mean for our culture and environment - it is an interesting question, and so I want to take you on a short journey, and show you some startling facts that Phillips Lighting Australia have been exploring.
The Importance of lighting impacts every area of our life, from simply lighting our home, to giving us safe and effective driving conditions at night; letting us read with efficiency; illumination for all sorts of sporting events and indoor activities, and list goes on. Our modern environment enjoys efficient light because of our (usually) cheap and easy access to electric power, and our health and safety depend it to a surprising amount.
But did you know that two thirds of regional populations in the developing world have NO ACCESS to electric power at all. Potentially over 2 billion people.
So how do they get by... many turn to simple and primitive means such as oil and Kerosine lamps, like these devices...
Here are a few facts regarding the burning of such fossil fuels - purely for producing LIGHT in these places, as provided by Phillips Lighting:
- A basic kerosine or oil lamp produces approximately 3 KG of carbon dioxide for every lilre burnt.
- These lamps produce only 1% of the light capacity of a 100 w light bulb - very poor quality illumination.
- Burning such oil has obvious health risks, from toxic gas to degredation of eyesight in poor light.
But the most staggering fact of all, is that an estimated 88 Billion litres of oil is burnt every year around the world, JUST to produce light. This quantity is roughly equal to the capacity of this road train...
...and filling 1 Million of them - -every year. This oil also produces an estimated 265 Million tons of Carbon Dioxide. An incredible situation - and this just to produce very poor quality light.
However, new technology now has the potential to change all this, according to a representative of Phillips Lighting. In the past, Solar Panels have been used to provide small amounts of electric power for lighting in local areas, but the panels could not generate enough electricity to power normal light bulbs.
Philips are now developing an L.E.D. type of light globe that uses much less power, and can be operated with existing small scale Solar panel generators. Coupled with the much lower current cost of LED technology, Renewable Solar energy now has the potential to provide high quality Illumination to millions of people around the world currently sitting in near darkness.
The results of this technology will be immense...
- Saving millions of tons of pollutants each year.
- Increasing the capacity of many people to read better.
- Improving health and safety standards in thousands of communities.
- Because of the Solar technology, communities will also no longer have to install copper wires to run electricity to power lighting.
Such a simple thing as light can have such a massive effect on our lives, and thanks to Renewable Energy, many people will soon be able to benefit from a better lifestyle. (Our thanks to ClimatechangeNews.com )
To shed more light on Australia's Renewable Energy projects, we invite you to view our new publication...Australia's National Renewable Energy projects -2017.
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