With advances in LED chip and driver power‑supply technologies, long‑standing pain points for LED street‑lights such as heat dissipation, light decay and power‑supply reliability have been resolved. Meanwhile, rapid continuous price reductions have greatly improved the cost‑performance of LED street‑lights.
Domestically, LED street‑lights have gradually replaced conventional street‑lights and become the mainstream choice for new installations. Their intelligent control features further strengthen product advantages. Against the backdrop of energy conservation and emission reduction, the penetration rate of LED street‑lights keeps rising.
According to research data from GGII (High‑tech LED Industry Research Institute), buoyed by the overall recovery of China’s LED market, the domestic LED street‑light market reached RMB 9.46 billion in 2016, a year‑on‑year increase of 15.4 %. By the end of 2017, domestic LED street‑light penetration stood at nearly 40 %.
As Chinese government subsidies gradually fade and street‑light renovation projects in developed coastal regions near completion, China’s LED street‑light retrofitting market has entered a phase of sound and steady growth. Overseas markets are gradually emerging as the major source of future growth.
Overseas Markets: Main Growth Engine for LED Street‑lights
Sushil Kumar Modi, Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, India, stated that under the State Street Lighting Programme (SLNP), LED street‑lights would soon be installed across all municipal corporations and urban local bodies in the state to cut power consumption. The government is pushing hard to replace conventional street‑light bulbs with LED alternatives, which can save 9 billion kWh of electricity nationwide.
Modi added: “Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint‑venture of public‑sector power utilities, will shortly commence installation of new LED street‑lights across the state. A survey carried out by EESL in areas under the Biharsharif Municipal Corporation shows that LED street‑light deployment will save municipal bodies INR 131 million per year (approximately RMB 13.4 million).”
In July of the same year, Chicago planned to replace 250 000 smart LED street‑lights under America’s largest‑ever smart‑street‑light programme. Ameresco, a renewable‑energy firm, partnered with IoT solution provider Silver Spring Networks on this four‑year infrastructure‑modernization project to convert roughly 85 % of Chicago’s existing street‑lights into smart LED units.
Reported by Smart Cities World, this multi‑phase infrastructure modernization initiative kicked off in summer 2017. The new LED street‑lights are projected to cut power consumption by 50‑75 % compared with legacy fixtures.
Silver Spring’s IPv6‑based platform enables remote on‑demand switching, remote monitoring for predictive maintenance, and accelerated response to street‑light faults.
Mike Bell, CEO of Silver Spring, commented that Chicago’s street‑light upgrade represented one of the largest modernization projects undertaken in the United States to date. Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s commitment to improving citizens’ quality of life with cutting‑edge IoT technology was highly inspiring, and the project was expected to lay a foundation for future smart‑city applications.
Driven by deepening globalization and LED‑promotion policies worldwide, Chinese LED enterprises have been vigorously expanding internationally. Large‑scale LED street‑light replacement projects in India and Chicago represent valuable business opportunities for Chinese lighting manufacturers.
Smart Lighting: Future Development Direction for LED Street‑lights
Smart‑city construction has moved from conceptual exploration to practical implementation. Accelerated smart‑city development together with wide adoption of IoT, cloud computing and other new‑generation information technologies has created strong growth opportunities for smart street‑light deployment. GGII forecasts that China’s smart LED street‑light penetration rate will rise to around 40 % by 2020.
Yang Yanhui, Marketing Director of Cas‑Kernel Source, shared his viewpoint: “LED lighting has become the standard replacement for conventional street‑lighting in most cities across the globe. Smart control is being deployed alongside LED systems on an increasingly wide scale. Many cities worldwide will gradually replace existing street‑lights with new high‑efficiency LED solutions over the long term. Adding smart‑control functions can deliver an extra 15 % energy savings on top of the existing 60 % saving from LED hardware alone. Smart control enables on‑demand lighting, integrates street‑light resources onto IoT platforms, and connects manhole‑cover monitoring, waste‑bin management, security surveillance and digital billboards via street‑light nodes. Smart lighting defines the future of LED street‑lights.”
Signify (formerly Philips Lighting) launched its CityTouch connected street‑lighting system back in 2014, successfully rolling it out in Los Angeles, Jakarta and many other global cities as a key enabler for smart‑city development.
In 2017, Signify introduced CityTouch flex for the Chinese market. Using street‑lights as IoT access nodes, the system supports diverse smart‑city applications including urban emergency response, traffic‑signal management, security monitoring, pedestrian‑flow/vehicle‑flow sensing and weather monitoring to underpin comprehensive smart‑city operation.
Xiang Diming, General Manager of Professional Channels for Signify Greater China, expressed full confidence: “As CityTouch flex is progressively implemented across China, we will further advance domestic smart‑city development. Beyond street‑lighting, we will leverage our strengths in smart‑lighting for buildings, offices, industry, hotels and commercial premises to bring more people comfortable, intelligent, convenient and safe urban living experiences.”
In summary, with the popularization of connected smart lighting, street‑lights are no longer limited to illumination. They build out smart‑city application ecosystems to support urban operation and maintenance. Beyond substantial energy‑saving benefits, smart street‑lights can help reduce crime rates, improve traffic safety and boost economic development.
