If solar lighting is so good why do we not use it to light up the streets?

Public Comments

1. coz the government wouldnt be able 2screw you 4 energy bills n tax......theives!
2. Probably because once the charge has been used up, the light wont go on. This could cause a problem during the winter months where there is not much sunlight throughout the day, but there is a much longer night time. Maybe the charge wont last long enough.
3. where I live we have a few solar collectors hanging out on the streets, and although I cannot be sure, I believe they help power our street lights.
4. because the sun only comes out one every blue moon, would be enough energy created
5. There simply isnt enough of it! especially in America and Europe, its abundant but its too expensive to use on extrem,ely large scale as is not yet efficient enough to be low costing, so thats why gas and electricicty is used instead, but maybe in few years
6. probably because it costs too much many for the government to throw away
7. Only because ,at this time its too expensive, and not reliable,
8. I assume it has something to do with the cost of replacing all of the street lights with solar lamps. I also imagine that power companies have alot of pull in Washington making it difficult to change things for the better. It is a great idea but there would be little profit in it for the power companies so I doubt any of our so called leaders would go to great lengths to make it happen.
9. Cost! :-)=
10. I't used on most go't properties where I live...Ft. Irwin and the Marine Corps logistics base use them everywhere. I am currently building a home..thats going to be totally solar no power company to deal with.
11. I see it used here a lot for non-public lighting (like landscape lighting) and I do know it is used in some places for street lights, but as someone else suggested, without a decent storage system for the energy captured, they are unreliable during bad weather. I had solar hot water and it was designed to assist the hot water heater. It definitely helped the bill, but when the hot water heater was out (electric) I knew it!
12. It's too costly to replace the electric lights. Also, there would still have to be a back-up for periods of time when their is not enough sunlight, and that would cost extra. Bottom line, nobody is willing to foot the bill when we already have lighting installed.
13. but we do, all day long.
14. Have you seen the little lights for the garden? 1) They aren't very bright. 2) They get dimmer and dimmer until they go out. 3) They don't last all night. If street lights were solar, they'd have these problems too, even if we have huge solar panels and capacitors for them. As a driver, I'm sure I don't want street lights getting dimmer and going out while it's still dark!
15. Because every pole will have to have its own solar cell and storage battery.Is it economical to have 1500 small kitchens or one big kitchen.
16. Because solar cells are not yet good enough on a sunny day to do the job. And if it's cloudy, you wouldn't be able to see well enough.
17. Simply because municipal utilities are not paid for by the local government, they're paid for by the taxpayers. There is no incentive, on the part of local government to reduce expenses, basically it's not their problem.
18. Street lights exist primarily for safety reasons. As such, they have a high footcandles rating (measurement of light), and use up quite a bit of energy to create this large light field. Solar power simply wouldn't provide enought power to keep them lit for the entire night. Since it is an issue of safety, energy concerns are only a secondary consideration.
19. It isn't. I have it in my driveway and it doesn't work at night if it's been a cloudy or hazy day.
20. It is very expensive to maintain and works only on shiny days. Imagine countries on the Nothern parts of earth And Southest of course who have 7 or 8 shiny days every month.Maybe in the future better solar chips and cheaper also will make this possible.