Miami Gets 600 Solar Powered Bus Shelters

Written by Jaymi Heimbuch

Thursday, 21 August 2008

Fuel Miami, LLC, a media company, has come up with a brilliant give-take plan to boost its company, its advertisers, and the city of Miami. The company is installing 600 solar-powered bus shelters in Miami, upon which they’ll be able to place their customer’s ads, and with no need to plug into the grid. The shelters will save about 2 tons of CO2 emissions each, illuminating the ad panels and the shelter itself using the resource for which the state of Florida is famous. This is one of those places where utilizing solar power seems most obvious. The energy used to light bus shelters is easily overlooked when we’re trying to change the world, but relatively small steps like this make a big difference. It’s an exciting project, and I’m hoping will encourage other media companies vying to provide cities with their outdoor furniture to make similar moves, and for cities to push bidding companies to make innovative proposals like Fuel Miami, LLC. The only issue I can think of that would put a damper on this cool project is…well, have you seen the condition of most cities’ bus shelters? I imagine keeping vandals away from the solar panels could be a bit difficult.