Robot the blackouts can’t stop (Solar traffic lights in South Africa)

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=586863

Robot the blackouts can’t stop

Anton Ferreira Published:Oct 14, 2007

Solar traffic light shines through load-shedding.

As blackouts plague South Africa once more, there’s one set of traffic lights in Cape Town that keeps working regardless — it’s powered by the sun.

Switched on two weeks ago as a test project, the lights run off batteries charged by a solar panel that converts the sun’s energy to electricity.

If the lights prove reliable and cost-efficient, the city plans to install more of them.

The solar-powered traffic lights have been equipped with light emitting diodes, which use far less power than light bulbs and last much longer.

Barry Bredenkamp, operations manager for the National Energy Efficiency Agency, said the solar robots were the first of their kind in the country.

“Cape Town could be at the forefront of a significant technological revolution if it works,” he said.

“Every other municipality will want to jump on board because they all have serious problems with traffic signalling and power failures.”

What happens when the sun is obscured by cloud for days on end, as it often is during Cape Town winters?

The lights will continue working because they have a back-up connection to the Eskom grid.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[kestrel91316]

2. Oh, NN, I agree!!!! Solar power is just bad and evil.

We CAN'T have people getting the slightest bit of independence from commercial sources of electricity.

[Greyskye]

3. No kidding!

It might lead to dancing!

[Greyskye]

4. LMAO!

Now that's funny. The forum's resident anti-everything-but nukes guy finally got nailed as an agitator. Kind of makes the follow up posts moot, however.