To fight against global warming, the Dutch government plans to slim down its carbon emissions to zero by 2050. One island is paving the way toward energy-efficient solutions with a smart public lighting project. Last summer, Texel, an island in North Holland with 13,000 residents, started rolling out an intelligent street lighting network that controls when and where lighting is illuminated. These newly outfitted sustainable LED streetlights will not only save energy and reduce light pollution, they will also help the island meet its own energy neutral plan by 2020, making Texel the first municipality in the Netherlands use entirely energy-efficient lighting in public spaces. — Philippe Leonard
Light on demand
One of Europe’s largest intelligent street lighting projects, Texel’s network will run thanks to advanced asset management software that controls the lighting infrastructure. Using motion-sensing technology, streetlights will automatically dim down or become more illuminated depending on human presence. Here are a few of the other benefits of the new technology:
-Energy Savings: The new “light on demand” LED streetlights will use 70 percent less energy than the previous outdoor lighting system. Solar panels will generate the energy for the LED lighting, which is run by a smart operation that halves lighting electricity on residential streets around 23:00 before shutting lights off completely later in the night.
Remote Control: With this software, Texel has the ability to control street lighting set-up, as well as brightness levels. The island can also easily integrate smart city applications and other software to control traffic lights, Variable Message Signs, sensors and CCTV cameras. In the future, the Tvilight Open Application Programming Interface will improve public safety by connecting to police CCTV, in addition to offering services like CO2 output measurements.
-Less Light Pollution: Since street lamps will only be lit when necessary, residents and tourists can benefit from reduced light pollution, making the night sky and its stars clearer above the city, one of the major goals of the project.
“Texel demonstrates what other islands across the globe can achieve with intelligent street lighting. Tvilight helped transform Texel into a smart island where beautiful night sky can be enjoyed by everyone,” says Chintan Shah, CEO of Tvilight, the company managing the street light controllers.
With the new smart public lighting system in place, Texel not only helps the country meet its energy-neutral goals, it also serves as an example for other islands—and cities—across the globe to follow.
