Dive Brief:

• A company in the UK, Pro-Teq, is testing a spray-on coating for streets and sidewalks that glows at night, using energy absorbed as ultraviolet light during daylight hours.
• The surface might offer a way to greatly reduce the need for street lighting, making it an energy-saving technology.
• Pro-Teq says the coating, called Starpath, has particles that can vary the intensity of the emitted light to mesh with available light in the area.

Dive Insight:

The company says the coating goes on quickly, saying it did a 1,600-square-foot test area in a park in Cambridge in a half-hour. Starpath comes in 11 colors and is non-reflective, Pro-Teq says, and can be rejuvenated with a new application when one begins to dim. How long that coating will last is not being reported yet, but Starpath does seem like a product that could change the look and feel of subdivisions and enhance safety on rural roads that are unlighted now.