How to Design Solar LED Street Light System?

Solar technology is not a new technology, it was developed in 17th century B.C, and this technology has marked its presence in both developing as well as developed countries. Electric Street lights consume more energy as they use HD lamps. Today we have everything that works with solar energy like solar-powered buildings, vehicles, solar LED street lights, etc., for energy conservation.

Nowadays a new range of?solar LED Street lighting?makes their presence felt everywhere and these lights are environmentally friendly and are easy to install and give high-intensity LED output. The solar LED street lights system converts sun energy to electricity and the system is prompted to turn on as the darkness approaches. Therefore, these lights automatically switch on after the sunset and after sunrise, it switches off.

The solar?street lights operate from night until morning. The LED lamp automatically switches on after the sunset and switches off after the sunrise. This system design consists of the following parts:

Solar panels

LED light

Rechargeable battery

Controller

Pole

Interconnecting cables

In solar street lights, the solar panel is one of the most important parts, and it is also known as a solar photovoltaic cell. These cells are of two types: polycrystalline and monocrystalline. Compare to the polycrystalline, the monocrystalline conversion rate is higher.?Solar panels use light energy from the sun?used to convert solar energy into electricity, which can be used to run many applications.

Electrical connections are made in series to accomplish an output voltage and to provide current facility connections are made in parallel. The majority of modules use silicon or wafer-based crystalline silicon but most of these solar panels are inflexible.

LED Light

In modern solar street lights, LEDs are used as a lighting source and LEDs provide much brighter light with lower energy consumption. The energy utilization of LED fixtures is lower than the HPS fixture, which is generally used in traditional street lights. Compare to the other HD lamps, and these lights do not emit light in all directions. The directional uniqueness of the LEDs will affect the design of lamps.

The output of the single LEDs is less than the other lamps like compact fluorescent and incandescent lamps but a set of LED lights gives bright light than these two. LED lights offer many benefits like Long life, durability, Eco-friendly, and zero UV emissions.

Rechargeable Battery

The rechargeable battery is a type of electrical battery or accumulator and its electro mechanical reactions are reversible so it is called a secondary cell. Usually, there are two types of batteries: lead-acid battery and gel cell deep cycle battery.

In solar LED street lights, a battery is used to store electricity from the solar panel during the daytime to provide energy in the nighttime. The capacity and lifetime of the battery are very important as they affect the backup power days of the lights.

Controller

In solar LED street lights, a controller is very important as it usually decides to switch on or switch off the lighting and charging. Some modern controllers are programmable and are used to decide a suitable chance of lighting, dimming, and charging. The Controller consists of a battery charger, a secondary power supply, a Led lamp driver, a driver, a protection circuit, and an MCU.

The controller also controls the battery from overcharging and undercharging conditions. By receiving the power from solar panels it continuously charges the battery in the daytime and while in the evening it supplies the battery power to a set of LED street lights.

Pole

For every street light, a strong pole is necessary, especially for a solar street light, there are some components like fixtures, batteries, and panels mounted on the top of the pole, and input power consumption is 7.2 watts (LED). In solar street lights, the input operating voltage is 12V DC nominal system voltage, and the light output at the height of 12 feet is the min of 09 LUX (unit of luminance).

Interconnecting cables

The battery box, Led light, and solar panel is all fixed on the top of the pole and they are interconnected with cables. The cable for this LED system includes a PV module to the controller, and from the controller to the battery and lamps. The cable size and lengths depend on the current being carried to the lights and the height of the pole.

Assembling all the above components into one integrated system results in the complete solar LED light system which uses sunlight energy to power the LED lamps fitted on street poles.

Solar LED Street Light Applications

Area lighting

Airport lighting

Hospital parking

Parks and playground parking

Parking lot lighting

Highway roadway lighting

Street lighting

Security light

Highway and ramp lighting

Bridge lighting

Residential lighting

Industrial lighting

Commercial lighting