During the first week in October, the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts unveiled its new, solar-powered LED lighting system, which wowed those viewing it.

Solar-powered LEDs can deliver the solution to three ongoing problems: the cost of municipal (and general) lighting; the pollution generated by powering conventional lighting from fossil-fueled generating plants; and the “dark sky” lighting mandates being passed in community after community as residents realize the dangers to birds, bats, bugs and other wildlife presented by nighttime illumination.

Viewers were also given copies of a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute study (prepared by its Lighting Research Institute) which shows that solar-powered LED lighting at Bethel Woods and two other sites in Sullivan County reduce pollution and greenhouse gases (GHGs) by 3,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year, electricity consumption by 2,700 kilowatt-hours per year (thanks to automated on/off features), and labor costs by virtue of its ease of installation, yet the LEDs provide the exact amount of illumination recommended by the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America – without much of the light pollution that affects wildlife.

The LED installations are a joint project between the state and Sullivan Renaissance, a beautification and community improvement program funded largely by the Gerry Foundation. Sullivan Renaissance also helped fund the Sullivan County lighting displays.

The solar-powered LEDs were installed via the DELTA program, sponsored by NYSERDA, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which also helped fund the study.

The DELTA program (Demonstrating and Evaluating Lighting Technologies and Applications) is designed to produce real-world case studies of new lighting technologies in commercial, residential, retail, institutional, industrial and outdoor applications, and DELTA Field Tests provide independent evaluation of lighting manufacturer’s claims while also suggesting improvements where needed.

The three solar-powered LED installations - Swan Lake Park, the Village of Woodridge, and Bethel Woods, site of the 1969 Woodstock concert – demonstrate that lighting can retain its conventional appearance (a post-top, globe-type luminaire, in this instance) while delivering the sort of energy-friendly, environmentally friendly lighting needed to power human nightlife.