INFOGRAPHICS – Important part in the expenses of the municipalities, the lighting of public spaces can now be assisted by marine micro-organisms to produce light. A first installation will be tested in Rambouillet in December.
About ten million electric lamps illuminate our cities and our countryside, our sidewalks and our roads. This public lighting is expensive, it represents 40% of the municipal budget. It consumes a lot of energy, up to 1300 MW and emits 670,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. To make matters worse, the park is dilapidated, 40% of the lights in service are over 25 years old. Even replacing them with LEDs is not a panacea, because their production is very energy-intensive and requires the use of rare earths.
A dive into the abyss has given bright ideas to start-ups to renew these lights, using disruptive technology. Like fireflies or terrestrial glowworms, in the ocean depths the production of light is a common ecological trait: 76% of marine animals are bioluminescent. Most of the time, this property is the prerogative of bacteria, via a simple chemical reaction releasing a photon.
Biotechnology…
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