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Taiwanese researchers have come up with the elegant idea of replacing streetlights with trees, by implanting their leaves with gold nanoparticles. This causes the leaves to give off a red glow, lighting the road for passersby without the need for electric power.
Leafy trees in most parts of the world have an unfortunate tendency to lose their leaves right before the times of year when the nights are the longest. I don't see this as a year-round solution.
Also, large-trunked trees tend to do really bad things to vehicles when the vehicles run into them at roadway speeds. Planting trees as close to busy streets as streetlights are currently seems like a spectacularly bad idea from a safety standpoint. Probably not an issue for neighborhood streets, though.
Leafy trees in most parts of the world have an unfortunate tendency to lose their leaves right before the times of year when the nights are the longest. I don't see this as a year-round solution.
Also, large-trunked trees tend to do really bad things to vehicles when the vehicles run into them at roadway speeds. Planting trees as close to busy streets as streetlights are currently seems like a spectacularly bad idea from a safety standpoint. Probably not an issue for neighborhood streets, though.
While leafy trees shed their foliage more drastically in the temperate regions of the world, it's not quite the same in tropical regions. Tropical plants do indeed shed their leaves, but they are often replaced with new ones all year long because the difference in day/night hours isn't as noticable as locations that are much farther north or south. For example, in Thailand, there is a difference in day and night hours during the year, but it's pretty slight in comparison to places farther north or south. Evergreen trees also lose their foliage as well, but it usually spread out rather than losing all over a few months. Generally, they maintain foliage throughout most of the year. Not sure it would work as well as broadleaves though.
Best way to avoid accidents involving vehicles is to keep the trees at a reasonable distance rather than directly at curbside.
I would guess that gold nanoparticles would have to be reinfused periodically to make up for any loss of foliage. Leaves that drop would need to be collected and processed. With the cost per ounce for gold these days, it could end up be a very costly process. Might be cheaper just to replace streetlights. On the other hand, instead of using gold, I wonder if there might be a way of synthesizing the same chemicals fireflies use?
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