There are about 326 million streetlights all over the world, and they are expected to grow to over 361 million by the end of this decade. According to Northeast Group, about 25% of all streetlights globally have already been converted to LEDs. If investment trends are confirmed, a quarter of streetlights will turn smart by 2030, thus be connected to smart networks to allow remote management and control.
This transition would surely contribute to the achievement of carbon neutrality goals worldwide. Street lighting is one of the largest sources of energy consumption and emissions under the direct control of cities: public street and area lighting account for up to 40% of electricity consumed by municipalities, and for about 1-3% of total electricity demand, as reported by The Climate Group.
A smarter management of streetlights represents an excellent opportunity for local governments, both from a financial and an environmental perspective. If we reduce the need for energy, we lower our bill, at the same time we decrease the impact over the environment and climate change.
First step is turning streetlights to energy-efficient LED lamps, immediately saving up to 70% in power consumption and related costs. As the price and quality of LED lighting continue to improve, costs will lower and lower. Up to 25% more power can be saved when transforming the lighting infrastructure into a smart, sentient network, thus enabling full remote management and control of single or grouped luminaires. Remote on-off control, dimming, and scheduling functions are quick wins of IoT street lighting solutions.
But public lighting is also one of the most actionable and ready-to-implement technologies for cities to transition to a low-carbon economy. Street lighting is like the nervous system of a city, connecting almost any district and street with access to power. It can easily become a sensor platform, growing efficiency even further and providing vital data for a myriad of urban applications. Example of services that can be deployed together with smart lighting include traffic light controls and traffic management, smart parking and electric vehicle charging stations management, environmental monitoring.
No wonder Smart Lighting continues to be a very sought-after asset of cities, increasingly investing in standard-based, interoperable IoT platforms to support current and future urban applications. If relying on agnostic technologies and open data models, Smart Lighting pays for itself thanks to the energy and efficiency savings, and the benefits for increasing sustainability and overall quality of life (including public safety and crime prevention).
Smart Lighting offers measurable advantages from Day 1: need more information? Contact our experts for a demo!
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