This is your city's future street light

You may or may not like the light (or price!) of an energy-efficient LED light bulb for your home, but where the technology really makes sense is at scale -- specifically, all the public lighting you see on your way home from work.

The U.S. Department of Energy, International Association of Lighting Designers and the Illuminating Engineering Society have awarded Sunovia Energy Technologies with recognition for "Best Outdoor Street Light" in a competition for solid state lighting design.

The lamp, called the EvoLucia LED Cobra Head SCHX5, uses what the company calls "Aimed Optics" tech, which provides a Fitted Target Efficacy, or FTE, score of 57. It was considered the best after evaluation for glare, efficiency, thermal management, uniformity and optics.

If that's all Greek to you, consider this: this lamp projects the most light on ground, in the pattern required, with the best uniformity, using the fewest LEDs and the least power consumed.

That means it's much easier to see the roadway late at night. Or public areas like parks remain safer after dark -- without bothering the residences that line them. And on top of all that, they're more energy efficient, cost less to operate, last longer than traditional bulbs and heck, you might even need fewer of them along a road.

Sounds like a good idea to me.

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com