Street lighting is like the veins of a city, silently but critically integrated into every aspect of daily life. When night falls, it lights the way home for people returning to their nests, and is the source of security; in urban operation, it guarantees the normal operation of logistics and public transport at night; all kinds of social activities, from the lively hustle and bustle of the night market to the vitality of the night sports venues, cannot be separated from the support of street lighting. Solar street lights, as a rising star in the modern lighting system, are gradually becoming the protagonist in this field with their unique advantages.
Next, we will explore the importance of solar street lights in depth. From the perspective of energy consumption, compared with traditional street lights, revealing its energy-saving mystery; in terms of safety and security, to see how it protects pedestrians and drivers; around the prevention and control of crime, analysing the correlation between the lighting and the crime rate; in the environmental impact of the environmental impact, to show its green qualities; and finally, to boldly envisage the absence of solar street lamps, what challenges we will face in our lives. We hope that through this series of discussions, we can fully understand the irreplaceable value of solar street lights.
Traditional street lamps, typically represented by high-pressure sodium lamps, usually have a power between 100 and 400 watts. Take a 250-watt high-pressure sodium lamp, lighting 10 hours a day, the power consumption is 2.5 degrees a day. For 30 days in a month, the power consumption is as high as 75 kilowatts, or 900 kilowatts in a year. Imagine a city with thousands of such street lights, how huge the consumption of power resources. Moreover, most of this power comes from the combustion of coal, natural gas and other traditional energy sources to generate electricity, which not only consumes limited resources, but also brings a series of environmental problems.
The way of obtaining energy for solar street light is very different. During the day, solar panels are like energy collectors, absorbing sunlight. Its working principle is based on the photoelectric effect of semiconductors, when the sunlight irradiated on the solar panel, photons and semiconductor material interaction, resulting in electron – cavity pairs, and then form an electric current, the solar energy into electrical energy. This electrical energy is properly stored in the battery through the built-in charge controller. At night or when there is little light, the battery releases the electricity to drive the LEDs.
The biggest advantage of solar streetlights over traditional streetlights is that they consume almost no utility power. In areas with sufficient light, a 100-watt solar panel can generate about 0.5 kWh of electricity per day under standard lighting conditions, which is sufficient to meet the night-time electricity demand of a 30-watt to 50-watt solar street light. In a community, for example, after all the replacement of solar street lamps, the monthly expenditure on electricity for public lighting in the community has dropped from thousands of yuan to almost zero, with remarkable energy-saving effect, which greatly reduces the pressure on power supply.
Improvement of driver’s field of vision
Stable and sufficient lighting of solar street lights provides great convenience for drivers travelling at night. In the road section without solar street light, the driver’s visual range is extremely limited, it is difficult to find out in advance the potholes on the road, bends or the sudden appearance of pedestrians and vehicles, which is very easy to cause traffic accidents. The solar street light evenly illuminates the road surface, so that drivers can clearly identify the road contour, see every detail of the traffic signs, judge the road conditions in advance, and make timely braking, steering and other operations. Relevant studies have shown that the incidence of traffic accidents at night has been reduced by 30% – 40% on roads installed with solar street lights. This fully proves the key role of solar street lights in ensuring night-time driving safety.
For pedestrians, solar streetlights are equally significant. Bright street lights allow pedestrians to clearly see the road conditions and easily avoid obstacles on the road, such as missing manhole covers and loose floor tiles, effectively avoiding falls and injuries. At pedestrian crossings, the illumination of solar streetlights enables drivers to notice pedestrians crossing the road in time and stop to give way to pedestrians’ priority. On the bus stop, the street light illuminates the waiting area for passengers, which not only facilitates passengers to see the bus information, but also enables drivers to stop accurately, reduces pedestrian-vehicle conflicts, and ensures pedestrian safety in all aspects.
Enhance the sense of security in the community
In the community, solar street lights illuminate every road and every leisure area. Residents no longer feel fearful and uneasy due to darkness when walking at night or walking their pets. Elderly people can rest assured that they can cool off and chat under the streetlights, and children can enjoy playing under the lights. This bright, safe environment enhances residents’ sense of belonging and security in the community and promotes a harmonious atmosphere.
Parks, squares, car parks and other public places are frequented by people. The lighting of solar streetlights provides a safe environment for people to move around. In the park, night runners can run freely along the bright road without worrying about the dangers lurking in the darkness; on the square, people can dance and exercise under the light, enjoying leisure time; in the car park, the clear illumination allows the car owner to accurately find his own vehicle, and at the same time, can also find out whether there are abnormalities in the surrounding area, preventing the vehicle from being stolen or scraped and other accidents.
Darkness is often a hotbed of criminal behaviour. Criminals often tend to choose to commit crimes in dimly lit places, because this can better conceal their whereabouts and reduce the risk of being discovered. The bright environment created by solar street lights completely breaks this ‘hotbed of crime’. When the streets are illuminated, criminals are well aware that their every move may be seen by bystanders, and even captured by surveillance cameras, this exposure risk greatly increases their psychological pressure to commit crimes, and inhibits criminal motives from the psychological level. Criminal psychology research shows that good lighting conditions can significantly change the behavioural decisions of criminals, making them give up their criminal plans for fear of being discovered.
Numerous actual cases also strongly prove the positive role of solar street lights in crime prevention and control. In the old neighbourhoods of a certain city, theft, robbery and other crimes occurred from time to time in the past due to insufficient lighting facilities. After the installation of solar street lights, the situation has been greatly improved. According to local police statistics, the number of crimes in the neighbourhood dropped by 25% in six months. The lighting of street lamps makes criminals have no place to hide, not only protects the property safety of residents, but also improves the security level of the whole neighbourhood.
Traditional street lights rely on utility power, and most of the generation of utility power relies on burning fossil energy. This process releases a large amount of carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and other pollutants, which cause serious pollution to the air, and is one of the important factors leading to haze, acid rain and other environmental problems. At the same time, the strong direct light of traditional street lamps is also prone to cause light pollution, which interferes with the normal life of residents and affects the biological clocks of plants and animals. For example, excessive light pollution interferes with the migration routes of birds and affects the photosynthesis of plants, causing damage to the ecological balance.
Solar street light, on the other hand, is a model of green environmental protection. It uses renewable solar energy as the energy source, and achieves zero carbon emission in the whole operation process, without producing any conventional pollutants. Moreover, the LED light source of the solar street light can be adjusted through reasonable design, adjusting the light-emitting angle and brightness, effectively reducing light pollution. In some ecological protection zones, the installation of solar street lights not only meets the lighting needs, but also minimises the impact on the surrounding ecological environment, protects the local habitats of animals and plants, and promotes ecological protection and sustainable development. Relevant environmental research shows that the large-scale promotion of solar street lights, can significantly reduce the total carbon emissions of the city, improve air quality, and contribute to the restoration and protection of the ecological environment.
If there is no solar street light, the road will be plunged into darkness at night. Drivers obstructed vision, it is difficult to identify the direction of the road and traffic signs, traffic accidents are bound to occur frequently. Vehicles travelling on the road will be disorderly, traffic congestion will increase, and the city’s traffic system will be in chaos. The operation of public transport such as buses and subways will also be seriously affected, unable to arrive at the station on time, causing great inconvenience to residents travelling and seriously affecting the normal operation of the city.
Without solar street lighting in public areas, security risks will increase dramatically. Criminals may become more rampant and crimes such as theft and robbery may increase dramatically. Pedestrians walking in the dark will be very prone to accidents such as falls and collisions, especially the elderly, children and people with limited mobility, whose safety cannot be guaranteed. Residents’ night-time activities will be greatly restricted, their sense of security in life will be drastically reduced, and the stability of the whole society will be threatened.
If traditional streetlights are widely used to replace solar streetlights, energy consumption will further increase and dependence on traditional energy sources will intensify. This will not only lead to more serious energy shortages, but also further deterioration of environmental pollution and greater damage to the ecological balance. We will be farther and farther away from the goal of sustainable development, leaving a resource-poor, environmentally unfavourable world for future generations.
Through the above multi-dimensional analysis, we clearly see the energy-saving advantages of solar street lights in terms of energy consumption, the umbrella for pedestrians and drivers in terms of safety and security, the deterrent effect in crime prevention and control, and the green qualities that are friendly to the environment. It positively affects our lives on many levels and is an indispensable part of modern social development.
We hereby call on road builders, urban planners, community managers and other relevant parties to actively adopt solar street lights. Whether it is a busy street in the city or a quiet path in the countryside, solar street lights can play its unique value. Let’s work together to create a safer, more environmentally friendly and efficient living environment, and let solar street lights become the light of hope to illuminate our future, and promote the city and the countryside towards the direction of sustainable development in a big step.
