New “green” streetlights up and running
People visiting The Square in the redeveloped town centre of Tralee have always been delighted with the great lighting installation, which (up to last week) consisted of blue airport-like “taxiway” lights embedded in the ground and standard street lights which were fixed to the walls of the adjacent buildings. While the former stays unchanged, the standard light bulbs for the street lighting had to go and where replaced with newly developed, low energy LED-lights.
Although this may not sound very exciting, you should know that Tralee, by doing so, became the first town in Ireland and one of very few cities in the world to switch to “green” street lights. They may initially be more expensive than the established bulbs, but in the long term they will save an awful amount of electricity and should have a significantly longer lifetime. You can see on the close-up, that the light does not come from one single bulb or spot, but from more than 20 high power light emitting diodes per lamp unit. Although they provide a bright and luminous flow of light they do not generate as much heat as standard light bulbs - saving electricity in the process.
