Siemens launches one-watt traffic signal

Siemens claims to have improved the energy efficiency of traffic lights by more than 85 per cent by using what it calls one-watt technology. The first pilot projects are already running in Bolzano, Italy and Bietigheim-Bissingen near Stuttgart in Southern Germany.
July 1, 2016 Read time: 1 min
Siemens launches one watt traffic signal

189 Siemens claims to have improved the energy efficiency of traffic lights by more than 85 per cent by using what it calls one-watt technology. The first pilot projects are already running in Bolzano, Italy and Bietigheim-Bissingen near Stuttgart in Southern Germany.

According to Siemens, a typical intersection with bulb-based technology and around 55 traffic signals (red, amber and green) can now avoid more than 6,000 kilograms of harmful carbon emissions a year. One-watt technology uses digital LED driver modules, which Siemens says eliminates the need for load resistors and switching elements in the signal light units which consume most of the energy.

Compared with the 60 watts sometimes consumed by incandescent bulbs, the electricity required by individual traffic light signals can be cut to just one or two watts. State-of-the-art LEDs with extremely low power consumption still retain full light intensity, while the one-watt light units also reduce service costs.

Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Evidence growing for distance-based charging
    January 18, 2012
    The case is growing for an alternative to fuel taxation for funding highway infrastructure. A more sustainable system of mileage-based charging can be established in a way that is acceptable to the travelling public, writes Jack Opiola. Fuel tax - the lifeblood relied on for 80 years to maintain and improve roads and transit systems - is now in considerable jeopardy in the United States. Increased vehicle fuel efficiency and a poor economy already hamper generation of fuel tax revenue; now a recent federal
    Read More
  • New vehicle technologies ‘could help reduce fatalities on European motorways’
    March 5, 2015
    New safety technologies could play a major role in reducing the numbers killed on European motorways, according to the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), in a new report published today. The new analysis of developments in motorway safety shows that, despite recent progress, around 1,900 were killed on motorways in the EU in 2013. The report cites figures from several countries showing that up to 60 per cent of those killed in motorway collisions were not wearing a seatbelt. It calls on the EU to req
    Read More
  • Covid-19 cleared the air: ITS can keep it clean
    July 31, 2020
    Covid-19 has created cleaner air: ITS can help keep it that way – but it’s not going to be straightforward, as Graham Anderson discovers
    Read More
  • Cost Benefit: a roundabout way of lighting
    October 20, 2022
    One of Europe’s first smart lighting systems specifically for roundabouts is operating in Hungary and making big energy savings for local government, explains Miklós Muranyi of NIF
    Read More

Highlighted Content