Power direct from the Sun: Advantages and Disadvantages of Solar Street Lights

Solar energy is becoming more and more popular as a reliable source for street lighting all over the world. Some of the benefits associated with solar street lights are reduced reliance on conventional energy, conserving energy, and consolidating lighting continuity with less need for the national grid. In countries where sunlight is plentiful, solar systems powered by sunlight are the best option to illuminate streets, gardens, parks and other public spaces.

Solar street lights today are powered by PV panels, built-in battery, LED lights and smart sensors, all integrated into one compact unit. Solar LED street lights have emerged as cost-effective and environmentally friendly to illuminate roads and public spaces. LED lights are widely accepted for energy saving, long life, good looks and maintenance free. These features make LED-based solar street lights well-suited for commercial and home lighting applications.


Four Main Components of Solar Street Lights

Solar Panel

Solar power is one of the most important parts of the street light, as the solar panel can convert the solar energy into electricity that the lamps can use. There are two types of solar panels commonly used in solar street lights: monocrystalline and polycrystalline. The conversion rate of mono-crystalline solar panels is much higher than their poly-crystalline counterparts. Solar panels also differ in their wattage systems.

Lighting Fixture

LEDs are often used as the primary lighting source of modern solar street lights as they will provide much higher brightness with lower energy consumption. The energy consumption of an LED luminaire is at least 50% lower than its HPS luminaire counterpart, which is commonly used as a lighting source in conventional street lamps. The absence of a warm-up time on the LEDs also allows motion detectors to be used for additional efficiency gains.

SOLİ Lighting Lithium Battery 50W Solar Street Lamp

Rechargeable Battery

The batteries will store the electricity produced by the solar panel during the day and provide energy to the luminaire at night. The life of the battery is very important to the life of the light, and the capacity of the battery will affect the spare days of the lights. There are two types of batteries commonly used in solar street lights: gel cell deep cycle batteries and lead acid batteries. Lithium-ion batteries are also popular these days as they are compact in size and not prone to theft as they are not used in other situations unlike lead acid batteries.

Pole

Strong poles are required for all street lights, especially solar street lights, as these are components that are mounted on top of the pole. These poles must be strong and durable enough to carry fixtures, panels and sometimes batteries on their backs for a long time. For example, those with 5mm sheet thickness and completely galvanized, such as Solar Street and Street Lighting Poles produced by Depar Energy, are strong poles specially produced for the installation of solar street lighting systems. However, in some new designs, the PV panels and all electronics are integrated into the pole itself. Wind resistance is also a factor.

In addition, accessories such as foundation cage and battery box are available for this type of mast.

Depar Energy Solar Street and Road Lighting Pole

Key Features

A modern solar street light has an embedded solar panel, built-in lithium-ion batteries, a battery management system, night and motion sensors, as well as automatic controls. The fully automatic device comes with LEDs, internal and replaceable Lithium-ion battery, and passive infrared (PIR) sensors. A typical solar street light is weather and water resistant, has a low insect attraction rate and low glare, and lasts longer.

The embedded solar panel converts solar energy into electrical energy, which is stored in the internal battery and used for dusk-to-dawn lighting operations. The main innovation of modern solar street lights is the battery management system, which is facilitated by the presence of night and motion sensors.

In the first 5 hours of the night, the system operates at an average lumen brightness. Then the intensity of the light decreases until dawn or until the PIR sensor is activated by human movement. When people are within a certain radius from the light, it automatically returns to its full brightness. This smart feature makes the solar street lights device a perfect combination of renewable energy and energy efficiency.


Advantages of Solar Street Lights

No pollution and no energy consumption: you only need solar energy

Global awareness of the importance of using resources more efficiently and being more environmentally friendly has settled and this awareness is getting stronger day by day. Compared to traditional street lighting, solar street lighting uses fully renewable solar energy without consuming fossils or any type of fuel. Solar street lighting truly realizes environmental protection. At the same time, solar lighting will save money in the long run without the need to constantly pay electricity charges.

Easy assembly and maintenance

Solar lighting systems are controlled by built-in intelligence that requires no manual operation, making it safe and economical. The entire construction process is simple and time-saving, while maintenance is rare and easy.

Less investment: independent of the grid and does not need other electrical equipment

The commercial power lighting project is procedurally complex, involving a lot of labor-intensive basic work such as digging cable trenches, laying cable pipes, routing cables in pipes, and trenching. Meanwhile the transformer, distribution cabinet, power plant will cost a lot of money. However, sunlight can avoid all that. Each lighting system is an independent individual, does not need wiring and electrical equipment, saving both cost and labor.


Disadvantages of Solar Street Lights

Solar street lights require higher initial investment compared to conventional street lights. This is actually the main reason why most people hesitate to switch to solar street lights. Without realizing the long-term benefits and longer life cycle of solar street lights, the initial installation cost that comes to mind can be considered a disadvantage. The risk of theft is relatively higher as it has a higher monetary value compared to normal street lamps. Snow or dust and moisture can accumulate on horizontal PV panels. This leads to a reduction or complete cessation of energy production. Therefore, solar street lights need to be checked every once in a while, especially when placed in areas with extremely variable and inclement weather, which can shorten their lifespan or require frequent maintenance. Rechargeable batteries must be replaced several times during the lifetime of the luminaires. This adds to the total lifetime cost of the lighting system.

After all these advantages, it is quite easy to ignore these disadvantages. Solar street lamps working with renewable and sustainable energy will provide us much more benefit in lighting our streets and avenues in our future. You can also contact us to catch the future early, and get our ideas for the area where you want to apply our solar street lights offer to illuminate with invoice-free and completely clean energy.