A fundamental element of any urban and non-urban road infrastructure, lighting poses some specific challenges that today, thanks to more modern and efficient technologies, can be effectively tackled.
This article explores how advanced street lighting solutions can transform our roads, enhancing sustainability and safety for all users, from pedestrians to drivers.
Despite advancements in LED technology overcoming past limitations like glare and luminance uniformity, current street lighting faces several challenges:
- Enhancing Visibility: data from Istat, the Italian National Institute of Statistics, indicates that the fatality of road accidents peaks at night and outside urban areas, highlighting the link between visibility and accident severity. Installing or upgrading street lighting improves visibility, thereby increasing safety for all road users, especially pedestrians.
- Reducing energy consumption: Inefficient street lighting systems represent a significant portion of the energy consumption of municipalities, impacting their budgets and environmental footprints.
- Mitigating light pollution: reducing light pollution is increasingly important to minimize the impact of artificial light on ecosystems and human health.
The main rules governing street lighting, starting with the European ones, include:
- UNI 11248: classifies various areas (from highways to bike paths) and assigns specific lighting categories.
- UNI EN 13201/2/3/4: outlines procedures and calculations for determining photometric performance parameters in lighting design.
- UNI 10819:2021: defines methods for calculating and evaluating upward light dispersion, crucial for addressing light pollution.
In Italy, additional guidelines include:
- Minimum Environmental Criteria (CAM): Developed under the Public Administration’s sustainability plan (PAN GPP), these criteria identify optimal solutions for public procurement, including lighting, from an environmental point of view.
- Regional and Provincial Laws: local regulations establish areas that must remain protected from light pollution and set specific lighting standards.
Studies indicate that replacing high-pressure sodium streetlights with LED luminaries can reduce municipal energy consumption by a percentage between 31% and 60%. Higher savings are achieved with dimmable LED devices that adjust light output based on actual needs.
But this is not the only way in which LED street lighting, especially the latest generation, supports local authorities in their efforts to improve the efficiency, safety, and sustainability of road networks. By enabling precise beam direction, LED luminaires reduce light spill, which has a positive impact both on minimizing light pollution and enhancing visibility.
Another key advantage is the extended lifespan of the devices, which significantly lowers the frequency of replacements and maintenance interventions. Finally, next-generation LED street lighting enables connectivity and remote management technologies, making it possible to implement more precise and fully automated street lighting control.
Intelligent street lighting, also known as adaptive lighting, is a technology based on a simple principle: providing light only where it is needed, when it is needed.
Based on pre-established parameters – such as traffic levels, ambient luminance, and weather conditions – a remote-control system, connected to both intelligent lighting devices and cameras equipped with data processing capabilities, automatically adjusts light intensity in real time.
Critical points, such as roundabouts and pedestrian crossings, are excluded from these adjustments and are constantly illuminated at maximum visibility levels.
This approach ensures an optimal level of illumination on the roadway, without the risk of inadequate lighting during times of greatest need – such as in adverse weather conditions or heavy traffic – while also achieving energy savings of up to 25 – 35%.
Until recently, implementing an adaptive lighting system was complex and required significant investment. Today, however, the latest technologies, such as GDS Lighting’s Sentronic Connect, make deployment easier and more cost-effective. By integrating both the connection and power systems within the luminaire itself, Sentronic Connect makes adaptive lighting scalable and more environmentally sustainable, while also enabling advanced features and full traceability of every lighting point.
Street lighting plays a pivotal role in the digital transformation of cities into smart cities. While luminaries act as the system’s “arms,” the “brain” is the remote control platform.
An advanced platform such as SkylarkNet offers several extra features compared to a simple telecontrol platform. These include:
- Automatic learning through artificial intelligence, for predictive maintenance analysis and immediate action in the event of faults.
- An user-friendly interface for all types of users.
- Energy efficiency, since the autonomous regulation of lighting according to traffic, made possible by camera monitoring, significantly reduces consumption.
With the latest technologies, street lighting is evolving alongside cities, offering increasingly sustainable, efficient solutions that reduce energy consumption and ensure the safety of all road users.
