German tunnel gets smarter with LED traffic control

Better traffic flow through the Elb-Tunnel in Hamburg, Germany, is expected to do more than just ease the commute to work for drivers.

It could help reduce energy use, pollution and cut down accidents. 

The changes drivers see as they approach the tunnel are coming because of infrastructure products that have been deployed by San Jose, Calif.-based Echelon (Nasdaq:ELON) and a light-emitting diode (LED) system from Germany's WHO Ingenieurgesellschaft, said Echelon’s Director of Corporate Marketing Steve Nguyen in an interview with the Cleantech Group today.

The new LED system replaces the manual and dangerous process of putting concrete blocks or beacons in the road to direct traffic into the proper lanes. As many as 150,000 vehicles use the tunnel each day.

Instead, cars are being directed by the WHO’s more than 650 electronically-controlled LED lights that lead to the tunnel, which could help cut down accidents, Nguyen said.

WHO, a subcontractor for the traffic solutions division of Siemens (NYSE:SI), makes customized hardware and software products.

The LED system has been integrated with Echelon’s LonWorks control technology to help funnel cars through the 3.2-kilometer (2-mile) tunnel, while optimizing traffic flow and reducing pollution. Financial details were not disclosed.

There’s an added safety benefit for crews and equipment previously needed to move the concrete blocks or beacons. Those resources can now be deployed elsewhere, Nguyen said.

Echelon makes infrastructure products that allow devices including appliances and electricity meters to be smart and interconnected. Other such devices include solar systems and kitchen equipment (see SMA folds Echelon’s technology into inverters, Raspberry for Echelon's green networking claim and Danish utility to use Echelon's smart grid systems).

Echelon’s LonWorks technology allows energy-related devices to be connected to each other, to the electricity grid and to the Internet, while helping to reduce energy consumption, the company said.

Networked with Echelon’s technology, the newly installed LED light fixtures can communicate using exiting power lines. The light infrastructure is also connected by Echelon’s technology to the tunnel operator’s IT infrastructure and control center so that real-time decisions about traffic control and maintenance can be made, according to Echelon.

Nguyen said this is predicted to lead to decreased maintenance visits, lower costs and improved customer service.

“We look at it as a systemic approach,” he said.

With less traffic congestion, Nguyen said less heat is expected to be generated.

“It burns less fuel because the cars are not sitting in idle and the entire traffic flows,” he said.

Nguyen said this isn’t the first time Echelon’s technology has been deployed for tunnel infrastructure. In China, he said the company has been involved with installing graduated lighting, where tunnel lighting is brighter near the entrances and exits and dimmer in the middle, which allows for driver vision adjustment.

Technologies that dim lighting based on traffic flow also offer energy savings, he said.

“It’s one thing to have efficient light,” he said. “It’s another thing to have control within the lighting space. A lot of companies are focused on the fixture itself.”

More progressive end users are looking for control in the lighting space on everything from produce to clothing and street lights. For example, he said minimally decreasing lighting brightness, which is imperceptible to a driver, has been shown to help slow traffic.

Other smart metering companies including Canadian startup Skymeter are looking to use a global positioning systems (GPS) to help alleviate traffic congestion (see Canadian startup takes a GPS approach to smart metering transport and Smart meters revolutionize transport in Europe).

And Telvent, a Spanish provider of advanced communication systems, is a value-added reseller of Echelon's networked energy services (NES) system. Telvent sells advanced communication systems that monitor and measure operations in real time for the energy, environment, traffic and transport sectors (see High hopes for Telvent on smart grid growth).

Echelon also announced today that Cleveland-based diversified power management company Eaton (NYSE:ETN) has become a reseller of its NES system, which replaces existing stand-alone electric meters with an open network infrastructure. Eaton plans to incorporate NES technology into its home automation product line. 

Cleantech developments making news in the past 24 hours

• Metabolix, ADM to open new bioplastics factory
• Rockwool nears construction on Indian insulation factory
• Two Israeli wastewater firms to locate in Michigan
• Al Gore: Super grid is critical to combating the climate crisis

View the last week of cleantech developments here | Subscribe to full feed