Solar Lamp Posts can help us save the environment

In December 2008 the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) released a Living Planet Report that warned if people in the world today don’t take immediate action, by the year 2030 we are going to need two planets to be able to sustain the world. That’s a really scary thought. But something as simple as solar lamp posts can help us to avoid this eventuality.

Think about it. For centuries man has abused the natural resources on earth. We have ravaged the earth for its coal and oil; used up more fresh water than anybody ever dreamt was possible; polluted the air; fished our oceans so that more and more fish are threatened with extinction; hunted wild animals so that some already are extinct; and depleted the ozone layer through carbon emissions. Global warming is a reality.

To produce electricity, we’ve built power stations that devour tons of coal and emit harmful atmospheric pollutants, and nuclear power stations that produce waste that some people believe will eventually destroy us. And it’s not getting any better.

The 2008 Living Planet Report warns of “an ecological credit crunch” that has been caused by “under-valuing the environmental assets that are the basis of all life and prosperity”. People in the know warn that this “credit crunch” is a whole lot worse than the financial one facing the world right now.

So what can you and I do to change anything? Can solar lamp posts really help? In essence, any little bit we do to try and halt global warming and minimise our carbon footprint on earth. Using solar power is just one of the ways we can do this. So in fact using any type of solar post lights will help.

If you’re planning to light up your garden or patio, then this does affect you. But what other choices do you have? You can use electric lights in your garden and continue to use fossil fuels. You can ignore what the experts are warning us and just wait and see what happens. But why take this route? The beauty is that solar lamp posts are attractive, easy to install and they cost absolutely nothing to run. They are also easy to maintain. A particularly popular design looks just like a Victorian gas street lamp, but it’s made of low-maintenance, powder-coated aluminium and it uses environmentally-friendly light emitting diode (LED) bulbs. Of course there is another choice: don’t light up your garden at all. But that’s not a solution, because apart from the decorative appeal of garden lighting, lamps add an element of safety to our gardens and help to keep our properties secure.

So how do solar lamp posts and their lights work? In a nutshell, each solar lamp post light has an energy collection system that enables it to gather power from the sun - naturally. This power from the sun is converted into energy through its photovoltaic cells. Then the system stores this energy in a form that can be used by the batteries that light up your lamp. If that all sounds a bit confusing, just remember that photons are units of energy that carry light. Volts, of course, are the units that we use to measure the force of an electric current. Yes, we do end up with electricity, but a solar lamp post doesn’t pull anything off the national grid, and it isn’t harming the environment. More on outdoor solar lights

Of course there are many other options when it comes to garden lighting, but solar lamp posts are popular. So have a look at what’s available, then look at other solar lighting options. If you decide against a lamp post, at very least go solar. It will help us to save the planet! More on solar post light fixtures