ECOSTREETLIGHT · Development of 25% more energy efficient street lights with integrated reflector, elimination of protection glass, optimized arc tube and improved luminaire design

The SMEs involved in the lighting industry face a tough competitively situation due to the dominant position of large enterprises in the business. The EU has for long been the world’s largest producer of lighting equipment, but now China has surpasses it in terms of volume. There is a 66 % trade tariff on light bulbs imported into EU, but EU has announced (July 2007) that they have made plans to lift trade charges, making the competitiveness even harder for SMEs. Our idea is to develop new and innovative street lights with 25 % higher efficiency than state of the art lamps. The increased efficiency is to be accomplished by a new and innovative type of light bulb with an integrated reflector. The advantage with an integrated reflector as opposed to a conventional light bulb is that there is no need for a protection glass. • The elimination of the protection glass will alone increase the efficiency of the light bulb with 10 % to 20 %. • Typical efficiency of reflectors is 80 % - 90 % today. In our proposed project we will develop a new method for reflector coating which will give our reflector an efficiency of 95 % - 98 %. • An arc tube specially adapted to street lights will have an increased efficiency compared to today’s street light arc tubes of 5 % to 10 %. • The integration of an electronic dimmable ballast. • Improved design of the lighting fixture. Together these advancements will contribute to the increased efficiency. Preliminary calculations done by Mr. Vegger, founder and CEO of the coordinator Gavita, show at least 25 % increase in efficiency for our concept compared to existing technology, i.e. 11 TWh would be saved if all street lights in EU were replaced with our street lights. A consortium of 5 SMEs and one Large Enterprise propose to develop the above specified street light.To enable this, the project have invited 3 RTDs to join the consortium. The developed street light will enable the SMEs to take shares of the street ligh market