New take on lighting

If you have had a great photo spoiled because of a protruding street light or traffic sign you'll appreciate that these things are some of the most underrated bits of design ever. I'll be generous and say that Copenhagen in particular does not have the prettiest road lighting and it has always fascinated me that a country renowned for its good design could have such ugly objects spoiling people's views of beautiful architecture.

On a recent visit I saw this design which is for bicycle routes and uses sun and wind-power to generate its power eliminating the need for wiring. It is an improvement on the current system and I hope this gets developed further!

-RS

Power

Just to the south of Copenhagen stands this power plant. Avedøre Power Plant was built in two stages, Avedøre 1 in 1990 and Avedøre 2 in 2001. Avedøre 1 is a coal fired power plant while Avedøre 2 can burn most fuels; wood pellets, oil, natural gas and straw. Total output is 810MW of electricity, which is enough to give power to 1.3 mio. households, and 900MW of heating for 200.000 households.

The smoke is cleaned for NOx, SOx and ash so it's as clean as it can be. It's done by adding ammonia, water and lime to the smoke and sending it through filters. The end result is plaster that is sold to construction companies.

The power plant is operated by the Danish company DONG Energy, that has a virtual monopoly on power generating in Denmark.

Right next to this power plant DONG has placed a row of wind power generators (wind turbines for short). By 2011 20 pct. of the energy in Denmark will be from renewable energy sources like wind and bio fuels according to the government's plans.