Definition of Solar Street Light

A solar street light is an effective outdoor lighting source operated through the use of solar energy. Solar Street Light is a recent technological innovation for lighting solutions, powered by photovoltaic (PV) panels. The PV panels having rechargeable batteries are fixed on the lighting structure or in the pole to provide power supply to the solar LED street light or street lamp during the night.

The solar panels or PV panels are designed in such a way to feed natural light source or sunlight. This enables the street light to provide sufficient light during the night, or cloudy days even for a couple of days when the sun’s energy is not available. People are switching to solar street lights these days due to several causes such as lesser maintenance, environment-friendly, eliminates your carbon footprints contribution, and handy solutions to lighting problems. Even solar street lights in India is also popular only because of these reasons. SolarClue is an online platform where people can find several solar street light manufacturers to purchase their preferred street light at different pricing portfolios. 

Solar Street Light is manufactured using five components, such as Solar Panel, Lighting Fixture, Rechargeable Battery, Controller, and Pole. 

Solar Panel or PV Panel: - It is the main component of the solar street light that helps to convert solar energy into electricity. The solar panel is divided into two different types, mono-crystalline, and poly-crystalline.

Lighting Fixture: - Lighting fixtures like LED is another component used in solar street light that helps in providing much higher Lumens (total amount of visible light from a lamp or light source) with lower consumption of power. The primary benefit of an LED fixture is to consume energy consumption of about 50% lesser than the HPS fixture.

Rechargeable Battery: - It is used in collecting electricity from solar panels and stores it during the day time to provide power supply to the fixture during the night. Gel Cell Deep Cycle Battery and Lead Acid Battery are two different types of rechargeable batteries.

Controller: - It is also a crucial element of a solar street light. A controller is a vital part that decides when to switch on or off the charging battery and lighting system.

Pole: - It is an essential part of a solar street lighting system. Pole is built-in supporting the fixtures, panels, and batteries as they get mounted on the top of the pole.

There is a total of four types of solar street lights available in the market. 

1. Off-Grid Split Type Solar Street Light System

2. Grid-Tie Solar Street Light System (Grid-Tie Single Inverter, Grid-Tie Micro-Inverter)

3. Solar & Wind Hybrid Solar Street Light System

4. All-In-One Solar Street Light System

The optimum functionality of solar street light is to offering lightning solutions at night for several streets and by using natural energy called sunlight. A solar street light is generally functioned by PV solar cells that convert the energy of sunlight into electrical energy by the use of the semiconductor material of the device. This entire process of energy conversion (called a photovoltaic effect or Photovoltaic cells) is used in storing solar power in batteries during the day and provides proper light at night with illumination reduced to 10lux.

After this, the solar cells board is used to open the circuit voltage of about 4.5V. Then the charging and discharging controller is used to protect the battery and detects movement of the voltage value. This entire process is the working principle of solar street lights. 

• The operation cost is inexpensive as the solar street light independently works

• Known as a pollution-free source of producing electricity to offer lighting solutions

• It is used not by utilizing any external wires hence, negligible chances of occurrence of accidents happened

• It has lower chances of overheating

• Easy accessibility of smart street light in remote areas because the parts of this lighting system carry easily.

Solar Inverter is an indispensable device used in any solar power system utilizing sunlight or solar energy. A solar inverter is useful in changing the DC (Direct Current) into AC (Alternating Current) using solar power. In other words, the solar inverter is used to change the variable Direct Current (DC) output of the solar products into Alternating Current (AC). And this AC power is pushed into your home to operate your appliances, be it a bulb, fan, or home system.

A solar inverter is just an inverter operated using energy from the sun, which helps several devices working by DC power to run them on AC power. In this way, the consumers can use AC power to operate their required piece of equipment. One can ask why to use Solar Inverter instead of using a normal electric one. The answer is simple - solar inverter makes use of solar energy or sunlight, which is clean and pollution-free.

• Direct Current electricity from the solar inverter is used to operate LED light, a cell phone charger, Bluetooth speaker and many more small devices that require less power consumption.

• Alternating Current power from solar inverter is utilized for running your big appliances such as TV, refrigerator, and microwave, which require heavy power to run properly.

Advantages of Using Solar Inverter

• Helps in diminishing the impact of unnatural weather change as it works through sunlight

• Help in retaining ecological balance, and decreases the greenhouse effect 

• Helps you to save money or electricity cost in the long run

• Known as a reliable and consistent source of energy that can change direct current (DC ) into alternating current (AC)

• Acts as multifunctional electronic device that uses to convert direct current into alternating current to help large energy consumers

• Beneficial for cost-efficiency, easy installation as compared to generators

• Easy to maintain as it works fine even with regular maintenance

There are diverse arrays of Solar Inverters available in the market. Some of them are listed below. 

Grid Tie Inverter or On-Grid Inverter is a type of solar inverter connected to the grid by using solar energy. It produces a pure sine wave that is compatible with the AC waveform produced by the grid. Grid Tie inverter is designed and developed in such a way to automatically turn itself off during the time of power losses to ensure safety or security. For this reason, this particular inverter is unable to provide emergency power during such times (when power not exists). 

Grid Tie Inverter is also known as PV inverter that allows consumers to drive any unused or surplus solar energy, which your system has generated back into the grid. And consumers can or cannot receive a feed-in tariff for this electricity (depends on users’ electricity provider, and area of residence). 

On-Grid Solar Inverter generally requires its arrangement to be installed with anti-islanding protection. Islanding is a kind of procedure where Grid Tie inverter are deceived and utility grid still functioning even if it has been turned off. It happens due to load circuits produces in the electrical system. When it comes to the cost of such a product, on-grid solar inverter price is varied from one brand to another, based on its capacity.

It is recommended to use Grid Tie solar inverter for home purposes, which can be powered by a utility grid to use a grid tie inverter in their solar system. Moreover this is highly beneficial for the consumers when it comes to electricity saving. 

Hybrid Solar Inverter performs the same function as a normal inverter does. It is another kind of inverter, which converts DC electricity into AC electricity that your home can use. It also can use in charging and discharging your solar battery bank.

A hybrid inverter with solar battery charging is a cost-effective solution and convenient to install as compared to other types of inverters (a standard string and battery inverter). The majority of hybrid inverters are installed without batteries, which provide you the flexibility to retrofit a solar battery in the future when required. Hybrid Inverter is known as a multi-mode inverter because it can use to plug batteries into your solar power system, and interfaces the battery by using a technique called DC coupling. People can purchase it as per their requirement as Hybrid Solar Inverter price is reasonable in India, irrespective of its size and volume. 

Off-Grid Inverter is one of the categories of solar inverter, responsible for the conversion of DC (generates by the system’s panels) into AC electricity to use varied home appliances, and commercial equipment. Off-Grid Solar Inverter can transfer excess solar electricity into the grid for consumer’s future use. And, for this reason, Off-Grid inverter is used especially in remote areas, where the house owner can separate it from the grid as per his requirement. 

The utmost benefit of using Off-Grid inverter solar system gives your home greater energy independence that means your home is no longer at risk to power disruption caused by the grid or electric tower. Off-Grid Solar Inverter comes with a built-in AC charger alternative, which is also beneficial for users by allowing them to connect it with a backup generator and charge any battery.