LED Technology


Why smart lighting is the key to smart city success


By Phil Beecher, CEO and President of Wi-SUN Alliance


I


‘megacities’ (1)


n the current era of rapid population growth and urbanisation, it is essential for municipalities to make efforts to improve the safety and convenience of its citizens. By 2030, we can expect to see over 43 – areas with over 10 million


inhabitants – worldwide, and this will bring a unique set of challenges to overcome. As cities continue to expand and urbanisation accelerates, issues such as traffic congestion, poor waste management and extreme demands on local resources and services are likely to become increasingly prevalent. We can already see the strain this has placed on the utilities sector, for example: the United States is set to see energy demands grow by 4-15 per cent between now and 2029 (2)


, and this will


no doubt lead to rising prices and less sustainable energy production.


There is a social aspect at play too. Nobody wants to live in a run-down, unsafe city. Aesthetics are important, not only for the quality of life of citizens, but also for boosting


30 November 2024


the local economy through businesses and tourism. The concept of smart cities is pivotal in addressing these issues, improving on efficiencies while reducing unnecessary costs and energy consumption.


Mastering urban challenges Internet of Things (IoT) technologies have become central to smart city initiatives, enhancing both new city projects and the lives of citizens. It is not as if we are talking about a futuristic concept here either: recent estimates now place the number of smart cities in the world today at around 140 (3)


.


The technologies put in place within cities are having a revolutionary effect. Applications that enable the remote monitoring, management and control of critical assets are helping to generate and collate masses of real-time data. This information can then be used to provide critical insights, and help key stakeholders make informed decisions about how our society operates. Crucially, the vast majority


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of this data is collected at street level, through IoT technologies that are deployed across pedestrianised streets and motorways. The key to it all? Intelligent street lighting.


A light to guide the way


In municipalities, traditional street lighting is currently responsible for up to 50 per cent of all public electricity consumption (4).


However,


it only takes additional wireless connectivity and the latest communication technologies to turn streetlights into a scalable, effective IoT canopy. By implementing open, standardized solutions – such as Wi-SUN FAN – as the underlying technology within these networks, smart lighting can deliver optimal connectivity for a broad range of applications. By the end of 2022, there were approximately 23 million individually controlled street lights (5)


across the globe.


Europe continues to lead the way regarding installations, accounting for around 35 per cent of the overall total, and is closely followed by North America, which is the


fastest growing market in this space. By establishing a network of smart streetlights, cities can quickly cut operating costs through the efficient management, reduced maintenance and the extended lifecycle of these applications.


LED technology remains the optimal choice for smart lighting as they last almost seven times longer than traditional lights and use less energy. It is for this reason that by 2029, over 90 per cent of city streetlights (6) will be LED powered.


through the use of energy-efficient light sources like LEDs, but because of innovative features like motion detection too, they can enable lights to be automatically turned on/off or dimmed when appropriate. Energy monitoring can also aid in tracking usage more efficiently, helping to identify common patterns and develop schedules for when lights should be on or off. As you can imagine, these features can help make


Smart lighting systems can not only reduce energy consumption by up to 94 per cent (7)


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