According to the new report published by Transparency Market Research, Solar Street Lighting (SSL) market was valued at US$ 3.47 billion in 2016 and is anticipated to reach US$ 22.30 billion by 2025, expanding at a CAGR of 23.4 percent between 2017 and 2025.
Asia Pacific was the largest market for Solar Street Lighting globally, accounting for 44 percent share in 2016. India was the leader in terms of revenue realization from Solar Street Lighting, followed by China, in 2016, the report said.
Africa was the second-largest market for solar street lighting in 2016. Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, and Nigeria spearhead the solar street lighting market in Africa with need for clean and reliable source of off-grid electricity.
Solar street lighting is one of the best renewable energy based technologies to power street lights both in grid-based and off-grid systems. The components used for solar street light are solar pane, lighting fixture, controller, rechargeable battery, and pole.
Due to their dependency on sunlight, the lighting unit needs to be installed in a shadow-free area or a place where direct sunlight is available throughout the day to sufficiently charge the batteries for one working cycle.
The standalone solar photovoltaic street lighting system comprises of a re-chargeable lead acid battery for storage, PV (photovoltaic) modules for charging the battery, light source (Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) and Light Emitting Diodes (LED), suitable electronics for the operation of the tamp and safe charging and discharging of the battery and mechanical hardware for fixing these sub systems. These lighting systems are available either with automatic dusk to dawn operation or with a pre-set timer.
Tubular Batteries provided with the solar street lighting system require lower maintenance; have longer life and give better performance as compared to pasted plate batteries used earlier. The solar photovoltaic modules are reported to have a service life of 15-20 years, the report said.
The solar street lights are widely used in residential (car parking, residential buildings, garden lawns and others), commercial (highways, colonies, rural areas and others) and industrial
Current market scenarios have prompted street light manufacturers to look for alternatives that are efficient and provide off-grid power solutions. This gives way to certain drivers that boost the solar street lighting market.
One of the most important fundamentals involved with SSL is the fact that they provide a viable solution to street lighting in any terrain, irrespective of whether there is grid connectivity to that location or not.
Secondly, they reduce energy load on the economy leading to more fiscal savings for the government as well as the taxpayers. Solar street lights also give the benefit of having negligible maintenance cost, no wiring or transformer costs as well as reduction in carbon footprint, the report said.
Some of the key manufacturers of solar street lighting are Philips Lighting Holding B.V., Omega Solar, Bridgelux, Dragons Breath Solar, SOKOYO Solar Group, Solektra International, Sunna Design, Urja Global, VerySol, Solar Street Lights USA and Sol.
Rajani Baburajan
editor@greentechlead.com