The problems with outdoor lighting
Globally, street lighting infrastructure is not only one of the most expensive outgoings for a city, it’s a major contributor to climate change too.
According to development agencies including the World Bank and the IMF, well-lit outdoor spaces are a public good providing accident and crime reduction, comfort, commercial prosperity, and socialisation. However, the running and maintenance costs of urban lighting are often a great financial burden. For example, a study by the World Bank found that India’s large cities spend 5 to 10 % of their budgets on street lighting.
Outdoor lighting typically accounts for 20 to 40 % of companies’ energy bills. Additional to the expense of running them, the carbon emissions associated with street and outdoor lighting make up a significant proportion of humanity’s carbon footprint.
A smart and sustainable solution
Smart poles are integrated, smart LED lights powered by wind and solar.
The most visible benefit of smart poles is their replacement of high-pressure sodium (HPS) bulbs with light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs. This simultaneously provides an easy win for carbon mitigation and saving money.
Benefits to businesses and cities that have upgraded their municipal lighting to LED include:
A 63.4 % energy reduction, saving $US 8.8 million in Los Angeles
$US 1 million per year saved in Abu Dhabi, UAE
Shopping malls that have reduced their outdoor lighting energy bills by 94%
The above results are achievable because smart poles expand the energy savings of stand-alone LED lighting through smart controls, enabling them to be used more efficiently. For example, smart poles can be programmed to turn on only when motion is detected. The table below provides a comparison of the carbon emissions associated with the most common types of outdoor lighting.
CO2 emissions kg/year
5G network and smart poles
There is increasing concern regarding the expected carbon footprint from the imminent rollout of millions of small cells providing 5G infrastructure. Additionally, telecoms providers are making large investments into concealing their small cells to address ‘not in my back yard’ attitudes from the public regarding their aesthetics.
Smart poles are specifically designed to invisibly host, and sustainably power, small cells and telecoms providers are willing to pay a premium.
Smart Pole Business Model
According to The Asian Development Bank and The World Bank et al, solar-powered LED street lighting projects are often abandoned because of poor returns on investment (ROI) and high maintenance costs. The smart pole business model addresses these issues.
Smart poles are designed as infrastructure for the imminent Fourth Economic Revolution which, according to The World Economic Forum, will be characterised by the wide-scale deployment of 5G, creating 22 million jobs and generating $13.2 trillion of commerce globally by 2035.
Nations, cities and businesses failing to update their infrastructure to meet this economic shift will be left behind. Consequently, they will not reap the benefits of technologies such as artificial intelligence, advanced data analytics, robotic process automation, robotics, cloud computing, virtual and augmented reality, 3D printing and drones.
Space is built into many smart poles to discreetly host, and sustainably power, the small cell antenna that provide the required bandwidth density for 5G networks. This facilitates a business model where street furniture, which is typically a burden on public funds, is transformed into revenue-generating assets through the rental of real estate space hosting telecoms providers’ small cells. Providing ROI and negative operational expenditure in as little as five years.
Smart poles can be customised for an array of smart uses including analytics, sensor hosting, device, EV and drone charging, IoT application hosting, edge computing and WI-FI. They deliver the ‘holy trinity’ of connectivity, sensors, and analytics that are fundamental to smart cities.
These impressive environmental and financial benefits can contribute directly to several Sustainable Development Goals, making a sound investment for budget-conscious and environmentally aware authorities and companies.
Author Matthew Carter