New York is one of the most glittering places in the United States, not just for its opulence, but for the glowing lights as well. What is hurting though is the large chunk of energy consumed on a daily basis to power those lights. With the judicious use of energy becoming a priority to help cool the earth it is mandatory to think of greener solutions in the Big Apple.

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Seven Eleven Japan, the convenience store plans to equip all its new stores with LED-based signboards and outdoor lighting. The effort is to reduce emissions of global warming gases. LEDs will likely be able to allow 7-11 to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 3%, or 1.8 tons per store per year times 1000 new stores each year.

The Seven & i Holdings Co. estimates that it will spend more than 1 billion yen a year on LED lighting. An initial investment per new store will cost 1-2 million yen. Down the road, Seven-Eleven Japan is expected to use roughly 75% less power than fluorescent lights, thus getting back their investment. LED lights also last four to five years, compared with a year or so for fluorescent lights.

Rival convenience store operators, Lawson Inc., FamilyMart Co. and Circle K Sunkus Co. have been testing LED-based signboards, however, 7-11 is the first to take the plunge on a large scale.

Convenience store operators are also turning to more power-efficient air conditioning to reduce their CO2 emissions.

Shall we call this a convenient truth?

Source: Nikkei
Image courtesy of chishikilauren

If you are in search of an energy efficient but smart looking replacement for your CFL light bulbs, then you can end your hunt here. Frog Design has come out with an innovative LED bulb which is shaped like the conventional bulb instead of a LED, and what is more interesting is that it lasts for a good thirty years.

This high-powered LED uses less power and has a brighter light quality as compared to the CFL and since it is in the ordinary bulb shape it can easily be fit into any light socket.

The heat released by the bulb is absorbed by its aluminum base thereby giving it the long life that it promises to have. Whether the Frog Design’s LED will live up to its expectations is yet for us to see. – via CleanTechnica

As the world is stepping towards the future, people have begun to realize how fast they are exhausting their natural resources.

Every effort is being made to conserve all kinds of energy, and so is it for non-renewable energy sources. A technology is being developed which would help us reduce our great dependence on non-renewable energy resources, thereby cutting down on carbon emissions.

This smart device is the light-emitting diode or in short LED.

LED will help enable a wireless technology based on visible light, replacing the now used radio frequency. Boston University’s College of Engineering under a grant from the National Science Foundation is working on such a device. The purpose of this project is not only to conserve electricity and in turn cut down the usage of ecological resources, but also to produce a wireless facility which would help access data and create smooth communication with just a glow of natural light. As for electricity, the consumption would definitely go down, hence saving on the bills.

How apt or efficient this technology would be is yet for us to see, but even so we wait with abated breath for this smart lighting to be launched.

You can read more about the technology at the Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center. – via EcoGeek

After seeing the green wall in Madrid I expected to see more and more walls being covered with plants, but this one does it as well. In China at the Xicui entertainment complex in Beijing, they’ve created this massive and astounding self-sustaining color LED display wall that is completely powered with photovoltaic cells. They also claim that the GreenPix wall is the world’s largest …

The Zero Energy Media Wall uses the sun energy during the day to power itself in a colorful light show, at night. It was built for visitors attending the 2008 Beijing Olympics and it opens to the public this month. See the video below.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZfOy2fo8E4[/youtube]

Implemented: New York architecture firm Simone Giostra & Partners
GreenPix

A new technology that promises to deliver ultra-efficient plasma light-bulbs, better than LEDs was developed by Luxim of Sunnyvale, California. At the size of a Tic-Tac this tiny lightbulb can provide as much light as a street lamp.

The technology seems to be simple, at least for them. It’s partially packed in a dielectric material, has argon gas inside and a component called “puck”. The process goes like this: electric energy is being sent inside, the puck acts as a lens and heats up the argon gas up to 6,000 degrees Kelvin which in return gives off ultra-efficient bright light similar to the spectrum of sunlight.

Using 250 watts, it achieves 140 lumens per watt which is way above the standard lightbulbs and even high-end LEDs that will get 15 to 70 lumens per watt.

“A key advantage is that the energy is driven into the bulb without any electrodes, so you don’t need any electrical connections to get the energy into the bulb,” Luxim CEO Tony McGettigan explained to ZDNet.

General Electric has been working for the last four years to get their project involving roll-to-roll printing (like a newspaper) of OLEDs, live. The newly printed Organic Light Emitting Diodes are extremely energy efficient, with high performances and are supposed to be pretty cheap. I already have a few ideas of using the prints from extremely big sizes to very weird designs.

“Because this had never been done before, we faced some real technical challenges – especially given our program time constraints that often meant we had to start designing machine modules before we had the device fabrication process completely figured out! Anyway, in the end it all came together and we were successful in making our deliverable” said Anil Dugall on the GE Global Research blog.

First demonstration of the roll-to-roll printing method, by General Electric

OLEDs (organic light emitting diodes) are a type of LEDs, made of thin films of organic molecules. They are supposed to be a common thing in the green gadgets of tomorrow with the main advantages being: no need for a backlight to function, they draw less energy and are thinner than LCDs.

via GroovyGreen