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In a major win for LEDs, New York City has announced the bulbs may soon be used to power standard streetlights across the city.
A lighting design firm called the Office for Visual Interaction designed the streetlight, which contains 100 small LED bulbs in its head instead of a single large one.
The multitude of bulbs creates the flexibility for the light to illuminate certain objects on the ground—for NYC, different light patterns will be used for parks, street corners, and city blocks.
OVI's long, thin light has an energy savings of 30 percent compared to sodium lights and last twice as long. The streetlight's design also allows LED chips to be easily swapped as technology advances.
If all goes well during prototype testing next year, expect your next NYC trip to be illuminated by LEDs.
It's about time
New York City needed a unique streetlight. The current Cobra Head really has a 1960's feel to it. They were good for the time but now its time for something new. Hopefully, they can install leds in the historic Bishop Crook lamps that NYC uses in some neighborhoods.