Bright idea for not much money

God said, Let there be light. And it was free.

Then people got involved and it was expensive.

Now, a Salt Point company promises to knock up to 90 percent off the cost of lighting via solar panels and cutting-edge LED technology.

Unlike great environmental cost-saving promises of the past, this effort lacks the two A”™s: there is no need for altruism because the savings are immediate and this is not an abstract concept; it”™s up and running.

LitGreen lights are now lighting a public housing stairwell in Poughkeepsie, a parking garage in New York City and the entire length of the Walkway Over the Hudson. The mile-plus of Walkway lights cost about $1.80 per hour to run, substantial savings over standard lighting, according to inventor Andrew Neal. Another nine public stairwells will soon be lighted in Poughkeepsie.

Former Poughkeepsie Mayor Nancy Cozean is on board as vice president for marketing at LitGreen. She said a Department of Labor grant is now being used to train some 15 technicians in all aspects of LED technology and installation. She, too, has taken a class. Those 15 will join 35 who have already received training in everything from PV cells to direct-current electricity in what Cozean terms “a partnership of the private sector (LitGreen), the public sector (public housing security needs) and the education sector (instruction both at a downtown Poughkeepsie community center and at Dutchess Community College).” The classes are taught by revolving experts, including Neal, who addressed technical elements of lighting and who also enlisted his patent attorney to teach a class.

Neal showed off a lighting element he said was 3 watts that had burned without interruption for two years to demonstrate durability.

The company has approached large companies with its lighting scheme and Neal was optimistic something good was going to happen.

LitGreen has already teamed with Solar Tech Renewables L.L.C. of Kingston by making a bank of lights to illuminate 5,000 square feet. The lights can run specifically off a pair of Solar Tech’s PV panels. Neal showed off a pair of panels in his Salt Point driveway ”“ cost to be determined.

Besides Neal, the company”™s technical acumen comes from LitGreen co-founder William Wilhelm, who is the company”™s vice president for engineering and a former division manager at Brookhaven National Labs on Long Island; his specialties are thin films and direct-current systems, both of which have applications at LitGreen.

Neal, 49 ”“ who began his lighting career at 15 ”“ and Wilhelm have between them some 60 years of work in lighting. A recent breakthrough involves the interface between solar panels and the lights, which captures 25 percent of energy that had previously been lost to the transfer.

“It’s self-contained,” said Neal by way of selling one of the LitGreen-Solar Tech Renewables partnership”™s best points. “You can hook it up yourself and you’re saving money instantly.”

Any power source can run the LEDs. As in the case of the Walkway bridge, the cost of lighting may be so reduced that solar panels are not worth the cost. But for garages, public spaces, warehouses and other large spaces, the Solar Tech Renewables solar panels and the LitGreen LEDs offer electrical independence and an “ahh” moment for all those who have patiently waited for renewable energy technology to become easy to use and for it to begin paying back immediately.

Fergie and the Black Eyed Peas have flashed LitGreen’s technology at their concerts via a Darth Vader-like light saber powered by six 9-volt batteries. The light saber device wows police, Neal said; they could light half an acre “quite comfortably” with, essentially, a single flashlight. And next month LitGreen will use the sun to power a sunburst sculpture of its “Illuma-Tube” high-output lights near Buckingham Palace in London. Neal said entertainment in general and music shows specifically “are engines for lighting technology.” He got his teenage start in his native England by lighting rock shows.

“The real paradigm shift here is that this is not just lip service,” Neal said. “What has been out there was really for the rich. This will change that.”

Among the benefits: making lights affordable to diminish crime. “There’s a desperate security need for what we”™ve got going on.” On a more headline-grabbing front, “And it’s all made right here,” Neal said.