Algae-powered street lights eat CO2

Algae powered street lighting (great Photoshop)

A French biochemist – Pierre Calleja – has developed a street lighting system using micro algae that absorbs CO2.

The need to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere is contentious – to say the least – but as long as governments use CO2 as a stick to beat motorists and empty their bank accounts it’s sensible to look at ways of ‘balancing’ the CO2 emissions of cars.

French biochemist Pierre Calleja thinks he’s come up with a solution that would neutralise CO2 emissions from cars by cancelling it out with his micro-algae lighting.

He’s developed a light that consists of a tube containing micro algae which charges the battery in the light through photosynthesis and in the process absorbs CO2 – up to a ton a year per light.

Calleja has a micro algae-powered light on test in an underground car park in Bordeaux – yes, it even works where it’s dark and dingy – and he reckons his new light could be the answer to controlling CO2 emissions from cars.

With over 1 billion cars in the world it would probably take at least 3 billion of Pierre Calleja’s new street lights to balance their CO2 emissions.

But it could be a plan.