Bucking The Trend: Town Takes Down Solar Lights, Goes Electric
The situation that exists in the Town of Cheektowaga, outside of Buffalo, is the type that an environmentalist hates to see. Not just because the town recently voted to shift from solar to electric street lights, but also because the pilot program and technology failed so miserably.
What appears to have been a rush to savings with the installation of the solar lights in 2003 has now backfired and cast a shadow on a greener future.
Apparently, the solar panels installed above the lights were faulty and ineffective. Residents complained that they were unsightly and not very bright. Kind of reminds me of those solar garden lights you see everyone using these days. Another issue: the lights stopped working during a stretch of sunless days in December 2005 and January 2006.
So, we have a failed "green" program that in the long run will hurt additional chances to improve energy efficiency. Obviously, someone goofed on either the size of the batteries, the quality of the panels, or the thinking that solar energy in Buffalo, NY was highly reliable for street lighting. All it takes is one brush with faulty technology to make residents not want to pursue it any longer, even with advances in efficiency and battery technology in the coming years.
By September or October, Cheektowaga will remove the solar lights and install up to 330 electric lights under a new contract. While it's important to highlight the positives of the green movement, it's also just as necessary to point out the projects that fail miserably. Let's hope such setbacks only strengthen future implementations of the technology.
Source: The Buffalo News
Tags: electric, environment, green, photovoltaic, solar
April 12th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
We’re always going to have some failures. That’s just the nature of the beast when it comes to new technology and new social / economic trends. The trick is to learn from them so they’re not repeated. Rather than trying to hide failures like this, we need to bring them up, discuss them and point out how we can better solve them now days.
So thank you for reporting on this.
GJ
http://www.60in3.com
April 13th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
I have seen lights similar to these in Greenwitch NY. They seem to work there, at least some of the time. They are put in a location where lighting is not that big of an issue. And there are other sources of light in the vicinity. I think it is a positive addition to the community. I think it is important for the success of new alternative technologies to plan well. Greenwitch has also taken other steps to reduce their electric meter count. They have expanded an intersection and installed a rotary, eliminating the use of a traffic light.
April 29th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
The solar lights installed were tested for 1 year by the town, on some of the streets that recieved them. One of the goals, was to brighten compared to the old gas lights. They did brighten it up, and there were multiple meetings the town had on the street and in the neighborhood. There are some problems, but much of the reporting was inaccurate when you really look at it. At the firehouse and on the street they presented all different designs, in the end, it was the choice of the designs that hurt the project.
Why don’t they try and fix them? Rather than dig up miles and miles to install electric?
They work, they come on now. They actually come one when the electric lights are off due to storms! The town should decide what they want, and then try and fix.
April 29th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
The solar lights do work in general, and are brighter than what we had. Some of the other demo lights they installed looked much better than the ones the town chose. Someone should get the town to reinstall some of the other demo units they originally had up on Gary Lane so that we can really compare them. If you go look at the other electric lights around town, the electric looks nice when new, but many are in disrepair, some are not working, and many electric poles are tilted or ugly.
If the town had installed one of the original solar lights that was installed I think people would be happier.
May 26th, 2007 at 5:05 am
yea - I saw the deal and years worth of discussions.. meetings on street corners, even the supervisor (current was there).
They chose the worst light, after months of testing. Why not toss up a couple of the lights that were originally there and let us see them. Its worth the try. Once they dig up the streets for electric, theres no going back!