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About VOLT

The bright regions in this satellite photo of the United States represent light that is shining up into space ... totally wasted light and energy.

Dr. Syuzo Isobe, a professional astronomer from Japan, has been doing research to correlate the most recent satellite photos of the earth at night with the amount of energy loss due to the light being lost to space.

Annual data is provided from around the world ... but close to home the following numbers were cited:

Washington, DC = 41.8 million kilowatt hours / year

Baltimore, MD = 29.2 million kilowatt hours / year

Philadelphia, PA = 48.5 million kilowatt hours / year

New York, NY = 136 million kilowatt hours / year

To read the paper by Dr. Syuzo Isobe go here:

http://neowg.mtk.nao.ac.jp/night/paper/index.html

The data for cities around the world is here:

http://neowg.mtk.nao.ac.jp/night/gallery/index.html

Additional information is also available at:

http://www.skykeepers.org/calnight.htm