Some folks in Blacksburg are lighting up, but it's not what you might think.
Virginia Tech Transportation Institute is hosting an outdoor lighting contest called the Next Generation Luminaires competition sponsored in part by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Nearly 120-entries, from as far away as China and Germany, are going head to head at VTTI.
Judges are looking for the best street, highway and neighborhood lighting based on energy-efficiency, visibility and safety.
"In 2001, they estimated about 73-million luminaires outside- lighting fixtures outside- exterior lighting fixtures, and used somewhere in the range of 4 to 5 billion dollars worth of energy. And, so going to this kind of energy- we have the potential to save between 25 and 50 percent, or even more of that," explains Ron Gibbons, Director of the Center for the Infrastructure-Based Safety System.
The entries were set up over the weekend.
Judging begins Sunday and goes on until Tuesday.
Winners will be announced in February at a lighting conference in California.
