Where to Use Solar Street Lights?

There is an increasing demand for solar street lights today due to its plenty of benefits, such as high efficiency, environment protection, easy installation etc. Controlled by smart cloud system, these solar street lights automatically operate from night until morning. In this article, we would discuss some of the top solar energy applications and examples

Firstly, let’s learn some important parts of solar street lights.

● Solar panels: Known as Photovoltaic cell, solar panel uses light energy from the Sun to convert solar energy into electricity. This electricity can be used to run many applications because of its renewable capacity.

● LED light: LED light plays an important role in solar street light, which emits brighter light with low energy consumption. Compared to compact fluorescent or incandescent, a single LED will emit less light. However, a set of LEDs give brighter light than other lamps.

● Rechargeable battery: These batteries are used for storing electricity received by the solar panel during daytime, and it provides electricity to light up at night.

● Controller: Controller is used to control when to switch on and switch off the street lights. It also controls battery from undercharging and overcharging. Normally it consists of MCU, secondary power supply and battery charger, etc.

Top 5 applications of solar street lights

Highways and roadways

Many highways and roadways are equipped with solar lights as they are easy to install with no conventional electricity cost. These lights not only provide clear visibility for the pedestrian and drivers, but help to beautify urban area at night without polluting the environment.

Parking and playgrounds

There are a great benefits of using solar lighting on park and playgrounds. Firstly, solar lights help to light up signs, trails, pavilions and parking lot. Secondly, these lights are independent of the grid, so they can be installed anywhere in the park where there is a need for proper lighting. What’s more, these lights provide safety for people who walk out at night and also for the officials in order to secure the area during the night.

On the other hand, most of the cricket or football matches are held at night time. So solar LED lights are installed in the stadium or playgrounds that can provide high power lighting inside the field at low cost and minimal maintenance.

Airport Lighting

No need to lay cables, solar street lights are portable and easy to build. These days, many airports are using solar LED lights for safe aircraft operations at night time. The maintenance is needed only once in 7 years, which help save lot of cost.

Industrial and commercial lighting

Industrial and commercial areas are bigger in size, they take a large amount of electricity for outdoor lighting, but installing solar lights, the cost for electric wires will reduce and maintenance cost will lower.

Rural areas

The rural natural environment is harsher, which means it's not suitable for laying cable to install street lights, so solar light is the best choice as its installation is simple, long service life. Besides, rural roads are normally narrow and small, therefore the requirements for LED light sources are not high, which is suitable for installing stand-alone solar LED street lights.

In fact, with lots of advantages, solar lights are also used in hospital parking, residential lighting and camping areas for tourists etc. These solar street lights require less procedures for installation and also provide high power lighting when compared to conventional lighting. But we have to know that these lights are not a practical option for every application because the cost is on a higher side.