Development of a Smart Solar-Powered LED Street Lighting System for Greener Community

Abstract

The major objectiveof the study was to design and develop a Smart Solar-Powered LED StreetLighting System for a Greener Community. The project is different fromconventional street lighting systems not only in the sense that it uses solarenergy, but more importantly, it is also a stand alone device that provides foran efficient energy management program that ensures effective maintenance andreduced energy wastage due to malfunctioning lighting controls. In addition, itis much cheaper to fabricate and maintain as compared with its commerciallyavailable counterparts. One important feature of the project is that itautomatically controls the brightness of the LED lamp depending on a particulartime of day, especially in cases where full level illumination is not needed,thus reducing power consumption. It automatically activates and deactivateslighting depending on the hours whereby daylight is sensed, thus ensuring acontinuous cycle of charging and discharging the storage battery for maximumefficiency. All of these functions are possible since the project uses a controller,allowing for variable settings of time activation as well as brightness level,depending on the preference of the end-users. The project functioned accordingto expectations, being a cheaper and environment-friendly alternative ascompared with its commercially available counterparts. It also provided a cost-effective approach tomanaging street lighting systems in a wide variety of applications.