Glowing trees could light up city streets

Glowing trees could light up city streets

1)  In 2014, the dutch designer and architect Daan Roosegaarde makes a new project in which he combines botanic and genetics to create bioluminescent trees capable of replacing streetlights at night. He is in collaboration with the laboratory at Stony Brook University in New York.

Daan Roosegaarde thinks that the technological evolution will  not be anymore focused only into computers and phones, but will instead move towards everyday objects.

2) The light emitted by these new organisms is very similar to that produced by fireflies and jellyfishs.

The idea is to use the bioluminescent properties of certain marine bacteria to create plants capable of shining at night. The designer project to arrange these plants in order to create a tree. For this he uses Luciferase: ensine that gives fireflies their glow.

In addition to be an ecological solution to save energy, it's also very beautiful to look at and it evoque us the plants in the movie Avatar.

3) While, we humans use a massive amount of generated electricity to defeat darkness, Jellyfish create their own light deep underwater without solar panels or wind turbines. Instead, the organism generates power completely autonomously. These living lights have no breakable parts, and new lights can be made simply by growing more of them.
Bioluminescent plants could appeal especially to people whose homes are not wired up to the electricity grid.

4)   The Global consumption for public lighting and building lighting is 2,700 TWh, emitting 1,150 million tonnes of CO2. We’d save more than 1/5 ( one fifth) of all commercial energy consumption.

I think bioluminescent trees are a great idea in respect with nature and could not be too complicated to realize.

However, plants would not be as effective as public lighting with 1,000 times less brightness. In addition, only small specimens have been designed at that time. The laboratory team is currently working to create specimens the size of a real tree.

5) For me the conclusion of the project is What can we learn from nature that could be applicable to our urbain landscap. Our goal for the future is to develop ecological solutions to our daily problems and be more environmentally conscious.

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