Time Square New York and the bright signs at dusk (from zoonabar's flickr stream/creative commons)

I think we can agree that that the environmental movement has taken a strong foothold when even the billboards in Times Square are getting into the green act - the landmark area will get its first solar- and wind-powered billboard come December. From livescience.com,

The billboard, for Ricoh Americas‘ parent company Ricoh Company Ltd. of Tokyo, will measure 47 feet (14 meters) high by 126 feet (38 meters) long. Its floodlights will be powered on site by 45 solar panels and four wind turbines.

The result will reduce carbon dioxide usage by 18 tons a year, Marchetta said.

If replacing one billboard in Times Square reduces carbon dioxide usage by a ton and a half a month, I shudder to think how much energy is going into all the other signage out there. But regardless, this is big news for a place that thrives on flashing lights and signs that can produce epileptic fits. Even beyond that, on days where there’s no sun or wind, the billboard will simply go unilluminated.

You can takepart by checking out the Alternative Energy News website to see other ways people are coming up with to use things like solar and wind power.

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