Petar Mirovic

Last month EnGoPlanet was honored to receive an invitation to present its Smart Solar Street Lights and Smart Solar Benches at Viva Tech conference in Paris. This conference will gather more than 7000 CEOs and 1000 investors from all over the world.

This year at Viva Tech conference main topic will be Smart City concept. If there’s one word that can describe Viva Technology (or “VivaTech” for short), it’s that it’s a ginormous conference. While it was just the first edition last year, 45,000 people made their way to Paris to talk about all things tech. VivaTech is back again this year, June 15-17.

EnGoPlanet will participate in Smart City panel that will discuss solutions and products that can make our cities more smarter and energy efficient. In addition, this panel will focus on trends that are happening in Smart Solar Street light arena and also touch base on a potential of Smart Solar Benches to become standard urban furniture in Smart City concept.

Another big event that is happening these days is the Energy EXPO in Astana, Kazakhstan. EnGoPlanet was also privileged to be invited to presents its Smart Solar Street Lights and Smart Solar benches at this huge event. On June 10, 2017 the International Specialized Exhibition “Astana EXPO-2017” will open its doors. 100 countries and more than 10 international organizations will take part in the preparation of the pavilions.

The main theme of EXPO-2017 is “Energy of the Future”. It reflects the preoccupation of the international community with the problem of energy consumption, which is having an increasing impact on our planet. The main objective of the exhibition is to call for responsibility, to foster a discussion and to develop knowledge enabling people to plan and control energy consumption on our planet and to minimize damage to the environment.

It is expected that the exhibition will be visited by 2 million tourists, and the total number of visits will be about 5 million. It is planned that 85% of the total number of visitors will be citizens of Kazakhstan, and 15% - foreign nationals, most of which will come from the CIS countries and China. A significant number of tourists is also expected to arrive from Europe, Turkey and the United States.

The International Specialized Exhibition EXPO-2017 in Astana will start its work on June 10, 2017 and will end on September 10, 2017.

We can't wait to be at both events and we will write again with out impressions and feedback that we received.

In the past few years, the Smart Grid has gained a lot of popularity, mainly due to the fact that it promises a more intelligent, efficient, and reliable use of the power resources, while also providing a better quality of service to the customers. The advances in the technology of renewable energy sources have also contributed to the increased dependence on renewable energy, as opposed to the conventional fossil-based sources. In this paper, we demonstrate an idea for using renewable energy sources; namely, solar energy, to power a street lighting system, which could alleviate a lot of stress on the conventional power grid, and take us a step further in the process of moving towards a more intelligent power grid.

www.engoplanet.com

One of the biggest expenditures in Smart Solar street light system is the battery.
Batteries in solar street lights have to meet the demands of unstable grid energy, charging and discharging cycles and irregular full recharging. There is a variety of battery types that can meet these unique requirements. Main considerations when choosing a battery for smart solar street lights include cost, cycle life, installation and maintenance cost.
Below we addressed these aspects for each battery technology, as well as some best practices when selecting batteries for a solar installation

1) Lead Acid (most common in smart solar street light application)

Deep-cycle, lead-acid batteries have been employed in renewable energy and reliably used in off-grid applications globally for decades.
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Cost: Typical deep-cycle, lead-acid batteries cost about half as much as lithium-ion.
Cycling: Valve-regulated lead-acid (VRLA) batteries include absorbed glass mat (AGM) and gel models. Many AGMs batteries available in the market are primarily built for dual-purpose or standby applications like emergency backup, but not deep cycling. However, new deep-cycle AGM designs have increased performance and total energy output making them a good choice for renewable energy applications at a lower price point than gel batteries.
Replacement/maintenance: Many factors including initial design and ongoing maintenance influence battery life so it’s difficult to put a time frame on when the batteries will need replacement. Flooded lead-acid batteries have to be refilled regularly because the electrolyte that fully submerges the battery plates evaporates during charging. The battery enclosure needs ventilation to keep hydrogen gas from accumulating to dangerous levels.
AGM and gel technologies, however, are recombination, meaning they internally convert hydrogen and oxygen into water and do not require maintenance. As there is no free acid inside these batteries, they can be installed in any position other than upside down. Because solar applications can be in hard-to-reach or remote areas, the ability to install the batteries and let them operate over long periods without maintenance is a benefit.

2) Lithium-ion

According to a U.S. Solar Energy Monitor report, lithium-ion batteries are the most best storage technology, regardless of application. There are three types: pouches such as in smartphones and tablets, cylindrical such as in power tools, and prismatic such as in electronic vehicles. Prismatic types often have corrugated sides, which create air gaps between adjacent cells and can aid in cooling. The prismatic can have applications in solar energy storage, specifically lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries.
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Cost: At least twice as much as lead acid batteries. However the economy of scale and large number of new factories that have been created in last couple of years definitely drew the price of lithium batteries down. The new Tesla's Gigafactory will be a game changer for lithium ion indusry. Analysts expect that the price for this battery type will drop by 40% in next couple of years due to all these trends. In that case the lithium battery will be natural and rational choice for Smart Solar Street light application considering that it has much better cycle life, smaller size and weight which can open doors for new Smart Solar Street lights designs.

Cycling: Lithium-ion batteries can typically deliver more cycles in their lifetime than lead-acid. This makes them a good choice for applications when batteries are cycled to provide ancillary services to the grid. The most important benefit lithium-ion provides for solar is its high charge and discharge efficiencies, which help harvest more energy. Lithium-ion batteries also lose less capacity when idle, which is useful in solar installations where energy is only used occasionally.
Replacement/maintenance: Lithium-ion batteries can be lighter and more self contained than lead-acid batteries, so may be easier to install and change out. They can be wall-mounted and located indoors or outdoors. They are solid, so don’t require refills or maintenance.

Solar street lights definitely have many tangible advantages over traditional grid tied street lights. Recent market research study showed that smart solar street light market will grow more than 24% in next 5 years. This is mainly caused by rapid urban developments and creation of new cities.

In today’s increasingly global and interconnected world, over half of the world’s population (54 per cent) lives in urban areas although there is still substantial variability in the levels of urbanization across countries. The coming decades will bring further profound changes to the size and spatial distribution of the global population. The continuing urbanization and overall growth of the world’s population is projected to add 2.5 billion people to the urban population by 2050, with nearly 90 per cent of the increase concentrated in Asia and Africa. At the same time, the proportion of the world’s population living in urban areas is expected to increase, reaching 66 per cent by 2050. The main reason that drive such rapid growth in demand for smart solar street lights is the need that cities become more energy resilient and less dependent on power grid. Hurricane Sandy clearly showed that even the wealthiest cities in the world such as New York do not have proper infrastructure in place to provide essential services such as public street lighting when unexpected events occur.

The leader in Smart Solar Street lighting industry New York based company EnGoPlanet aim to completely transform how cities light up their streets. EnGoPlanet has several different models and so far, they have installations in Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Oman and Kuwait. In addition, currently they are developing new smart solar street light model that will be completely different than any other street light on the market.

In addition, another product that they developed is Smart Solar Bench. The Smart Solar Benches are becoming an increasingly growing urban furniture device that will transform urban cities and completely replace traditional benches. The Smart Solar Bench also presents a new addition to IOT and Smart City Concept.

Many cities across the globe are looking for new urban solutions that will help them to make their communities"smarter" and more people friendly. By doing so they also want to make their cities more energy resilient and to deploy technologies that will not solely depend on the power grid.