Enphase Energy Turns Street Lights Into Power Generators
Thanks to solar photovoltaic systems, residential homes have been converted from power consumers to power generating households for years. Many solar powered houses now produce more energy than what they need and feed the excess back into the electricity grid. Now it is the turn of street lights to play a similar role.
Street lights are power guzzlers. Be it the city street lights, or the ones lit in parks, or especially those on highways with 400 Watt Na-vapor bulbs that consume a lot of AC power at night. What if we offset a portion of it, or in entirety, by producing electricity instead? Enphase’s microinverters make this a possibility.
The set-up is fairly simple: Solar PV modules are installed on the street light pole. These PV modules absorb sunshine and generate DC (Direct Current) power. Tucked beneath each panel an Enphase microinverter converts that DC power to AC (Alternating Current), the form of electricity homes and street lights can use. Thanks to Enphase, street lights are now mini power plants during the day, feeding electricity into the grid to offset power they consume during the night. We call this the Enphase Energized Street Lighting Solution.
Of course, the power generation depends on the number of PV modules we mount on the street poles. With an internet connection, the production can be monitored through Enphase Enlighten software.
Thanks to the Enphase Energized Street Lighting Solution, turning street lights into mini power plants is of enormous value:
The all-AC distributed architecture is safe, reliable, cost-effective, and intelligent. With the product’s tested lifespan of 25 years, zero land cost, and no investment on batteries, the Enphase Energized Street Lighting solution not only gives you a better return on investment (ROI) but also leads to a sustainable environment.
Light up streets the smart way, with Enphase Microinverters.
