
Solar street lights have replaced traditional sodium lamps, offering greater convenience, energy efficiency, and environmental benefits. Solar resources are abundant, presenting vast application prospects. Actively expanding the use of solar street lights is of important relevance for steadily improving, adjusting layouts, and benefiting people’s livelihoods. They play a strategic role in ensuring national energy security, optimizing energy distribution, and enhancing atmospheric conditions. By 2050, solar photovoltaic power systems are expected to account for 16% of the world’s total electricity generation, while solar thermal power plants will comprise 11%. These two solar technologies could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by over 6 billion tons by 2050.
Development process and market model of solar street lights:
In traditional solar street lights, the 12V and 24V systems are prioritized. A 12V system accepts an 18V solar panel, while a 24V system connects two 18V panels in series. Compared to reality, traditional solar street light materials have been unjustly labeled as “heavy, clumsy, and powerful.” While this designation is humorous, it reflects the characteristics of early solar street light materials. The condition of the fixtures also benefits everyone. Possibly due to these traits, traditional design solar street lights remain popular among many users, allowing them to maintain a corner of the market.
The main issue with traditional solar street light designs is the battery, which serves as the energy storage system. In the early market, factors like battery size, weight, and safety led to the adoption of underground technology. While underground technology has advantages, such as safe storage and frost protection, it has become apparent over the years that the cost of battery protection is high, and the construction of protective measures is more complex.
With fierce market competition and technological advancements, traditional solar street lights are rapidly declining. People began to reconfigure light systems, leading to the emergence of integrated lights. Integrated lights combine the solar panel, battery, controller, and light source within the lamp head. This design not only allows for integration but also makes strides in smart control. However, this intentional design may significantly reduce system configurations, thus lowering the costs of protection and production of older models. Although it meets market demand, industry leaders understand that embedding the solar panel into a limited lamp head cannot satisfy power demands for illumination in the long term and cannot serve as a primary product in the industry and market.
More elements that embody cultural characteristics:
Customization is a major feature of the industry, but currently, solar street lights exhibit a high degree of homogeneity, with generally simple shapes designed to meet low-bid responses, leading to mutual copying in light design. By integrating local features, we can design solar street lights that reflect national cultural characteristics. These culturally distinctive solar street lights harmonize well with local landscapes, architecture, and ethnic clothing, embodying national characteristics while providing excellent illumination. Given the increasing artistic flair and cultural heritage, these custom solar street lights with humanistic features will become a major trend in the future.
Observing the development trends of solar street lights, there’s an inverse relationship between price and technology. As technology matures, prices become more accessible to the public. Advancements in science and technology significantly lower production costs for older products. Supported by scientific advancements, solar street lights achieve high-quality and high-output production. In the near future, as technology progresses, the prices of solar street lights will continue to evolve, with once expensive products gradually becoming green products available to everyone.
Smart integration of IoT technology:
In the future, with the development of smart cities, more intelligent technologies will be integrated into street lights. Solar street lights will be installed on every city street and in many rural areas, becoming excellent carriers of smart infrastructure. Technological advancements allow for remote control and self-diagnosis of street lights. They can also effectively interconnect with transportation, security, and civil affairs, integrating IoT technology to enhance the efficiency of street lights in serving society.
More energy-efficient with constantly improving technology:
To address the short lifespan issue, solar street lights require improved smart control technologies and higher photovoltaic conversion efficiency. Smart control technology boosts the efficiency of energy use, protecting the battery life. The short lifespan often depends on improper battery protection and usage, specifically managing deep charging and discharging. Additionally, enhancing the luminous efficiency of the light source is critical. While one method involves utilizing more efficient light-emitting materials, the potential for improving LED street light energy efficiency is limited. Efficient electricity management in buildings requires experience. This is where the controller comes into play. Controllers using digital control technology can save up to 80% of energy when configured properly and effectively manage energy usage, significantly extending the product’s lifespan. Generally, solar street lights have a lifespan that is 3 to 5 times longer than traditional street lights.
The performance analysis of these solar street lights has far-reaching implications for the future, indicating that it is impossible to move away from solar energy. With the progress of the times, we have transitioned from developing street lights to a range of lighting products, including more innovative solar floodlights, solar energy-saving street lights, solar landscape lights, solar courtyard lights, and solar professional street lights. Consistently, we will regard today’s quality as tomorrow’s market, utilizing top talent, quality, and management to create first-class solar photovoltaic innovations.
Forecast of the development trends of solar street lights:
From a government perspective, the solar smart street light industry is a new energy source that protects the environment and will receive national policy support. From a market perspective, solar street lights demonstrate significant economic benefits and broad market prospects. It is estimated that by 2025, the industrial market for solar street lights in China will reach 6.985 billion yuan.