Photo by NASA reveals change in lighting style in Rio de Janeiro – Brazil

A Nasathe United States aerospace agency, released last Sunday, the 17th, a photo that shows the dominance of white lights on public roads in the Rio de Janeiro. Since last year, the City of Rio de Janeiro, through a partnership with the private sector, has been replacing the 150 watt sodium vapor lamps (yellow) with the LED type, which are lighter and last longer.

The image was captured by the International Space Station (ISS) about 420 kilometers away from the ground. In it, you can see the contrast with Niterói, which is to the right of Rio and Guanabara Bay (on the right of the photo). In the neighboring municipality, the streets are still lit by more yellow lights.

“Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s second most populous city, is photographed during an orbital night pass of the International Space Station while orbiting 261 miles above. when publishing the portrait.

wonder light

The predominance of bright lights is an effect of Luz Maravilha, a program that revamping the lighting of the river since February 2021.

The project is run by the Municipal Energy and Lighting Company, Rio Luz, in partnership with the company Smartluz. According to the Executive, 450,000 light fixtures will be replaced by LED by the end of this year. At the beginning of July, the city government informed that the program had already reached 75% of the target and that 336,493 lighting fixtures had already been installed in the city.

The new LED lighting is already available in all regions of Rio, from the 24 kilometers along the coast of Barra da Tijuca to the main neighborhoods and avenues of the city, such as Linha Vermelha, Avenida Presidente Vargas (Downtown), Avenida de Brás de Pina , in Vista Alegre, and the avenues Vieira Souto and Nossa Senhora de Copacabana, in the South Zone.

In addition to changing the lights, the program foresees the installation of 35,000 fiber poles and the implementation of services of 10,000 security cameras, some with facial recognition technology; Wi-Fi points and ten thousand sensors to control traffic and rainfall. Luz Maravilha will receive a total of R$ 1.4 billion in investments.

LED growth

In Brazil, the demand for installing LED public lighting networks has increased. At least nine other national capitals, including São Paulo, Curitiba and Salvador, use this type of light. Hundreds of other municipalities have also changed the sodium vapor light fixtures for the more whitish ones, or are studying the possibility.

LED lamps, according to experts, are more economical, last longer and provide a greater sense of security. Data from the Municipal Urban Planning and Licensing Department (SMUL) of São Paulo, where more than 541,000 LED lamps are used on public roads, show a reduction of at least 52% in energy consumption in the city.