Starsight and light infrastructure

At the Institute we've been thinking recently about the growing importance of light infrastructures-- the kinds of decentralized, networked infrastructures exemplified by Internet and cell phone networks-- and their potential for development. So WorldChanging's description of the Starsight project caught my eye. The project is a collaboration between London-based Kolam and Singaporean company Nex-G Systems-- or, if you look more closely at the "about us" page, six people.

Why's it matter? The Financial Times writes,

Imagine a city where every lamp post provided wireless internet access, solar-powered street lighting and a power point to charge your mobile phone. You might expect to find this in a sophisticated western city – but it will actually appear first in Africa.

Starsight is a project designed to supercharge street lighting and power in developing counties. Essentially it is a network of pylons, each with a solar panel, linked not by cables but by antennae which use wireless internet protocol.

While it's imagined mainly for street lighting, each pylon "can use a WiFi or WiMax (long-range wireless internet) and be connected to almost any kind of peripheral." Essentially it's a power source and wireless base station, to which one could attach any number of things. "A street light is the first choice, but it could be a Tsunami warning siren system, a CCTV camera or a pollution monitor." The pylons are to be installed by government-owned "virtual utilities," with the first deployment in Cameroon.

So a solar-powered street lamp, or solar-powered something else. Cool enough. Make it a Wi-Fi base station. Extra interesting. But the Financial Times notes a couple other potential impacts:

According to engineer Steve Flaherty, adding Wi-Fi "meant we could not only monitor the pylons remotely but provide blanket broadband internet access."...

It could even provide a power outlet at its base, to power a conventional phone or one using Voice-over-IP.

And that power socket has more spin-offs. One study puts the number of night-time street vendors at 40m across Africa – and almost all of them use paraffin lamps. a power outlet at the base of a Starsight pylon could resell power to these vendors – which they could use to light, to cook or to charge mobile phones.

That could cut carbon emissions for the continent, according to Mr Flaherty.

Because it's a virtual utility-- or potentially, a network of various virtual utilities-- it brings other benefits. It's likely to be less susceptible to cannibalization, so service won't be interrupted by "plundering of copper wires and cables." Further, street lighting itself brings social benefits that we easily take for granted: it

curbs the waste of potential and resources induced by crime (muggings, petty theft, burglaries, etc.) as well as road accidents. The safer environment thus ushered in reassures foreign investors and enables the authorities to allocate scarce police forces to different tasks. Shopkeepers and street vendors feel safer to extend business hours beyond dusk.

Technorati Tags: networks, solar power, sustainability

Comments

[solar]

Cool!solar power led street light