China is home to four of the top five LED street lighting installations in the world, and Dongguan Songshan Lake just installed 144 luminaires.
At the recent Street and Area Lighting Conference (SALC), Philip Jessup, the Director of International Lighting at The Climate Group made a surprising point China has four of the top five LED-based street light installations in the world. We ve been bringing you regular updates on solid-state lighting (SSL) installations in outdoor areas, although many are in the United States. Clearly China and other regions such as India bear watching and in fact just this past week the city of Dongguan Songshan Lake announced a new SSL installation.
The City of Los Angeles has the largest LED street light installation with 30,000 SSL luminaires installed to date. But China cities may be the largest buyer of such street lights in what is still the very early days of the technology.
Dongguan Songshan Lake installed 144 LED luminaires manufactured by Taiwan s Alliance Optotek Corp (AOP). The Artemis series street lights utilize Philips Lumileds Luxeon Rebel LEDs supplied by Future Lighting Solutions.
"With our modular design and Future s engineering and supply chain assistance, our Artemis series offers pricing, performance, customization and time-to-market advantages for customers around the globe, said Clint Yu, Director of Sales and Marketing Division for AOP. Energy-saving initiatives like those in China are driving the adoption of LED street lighting in particular. Municipalities also reap the benefits of fewer bulb replacements and associated labor costs related to long LED life.
The modular Artemis family of products can accommodate two to five LED modules allowing the luminaires to serve in a variety of applications ranging from 3-meter-high roadway lighting to 10-meter-high main-road lighting. The modular approach of AOP s ARTEMIS products will be inevitably imitated by other LED lighting developers, said Winter Chan, Regional Sales VP of Future Lighting Solutions. This is another important step in the evolution of solid state lighting.
LED street lighting in India
LED street lights haven t taken off quite as fast in India as they have China, but the momentum is beginning to build in the former. According to the Indian Express web site, Ludhiana will become the first city in the state of Punjab to install LED street lights.
Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) will partner with Indian towns to install SSL lights and share the energy savings. The city of Bathinda is next in line for an SSL installation.
Back in North America, the Light and Power company in Saskatoon, Canada is preparing to install upwards of 800 LED outdoor lights according to the CBC News web site. The city hopes to save 350,000 kWhrs of power per year and reduce greenhouse gases by 156 tonnes.
Saskatoon will initially install 600 street lights and 170 pathway lights in a new subdivision called Evergreen. And the city hopes to test LEDs in other neighborhoods to determine if the SSL luminaires generate sufficient light especially in areas with trees.
About the Author
Maury Wright is the Senior Technical Editor of LEDs Magazine.
