Ease of Deployment

Ease of Deployment

The biggest challenge with a grid-connected streetlight is often underground. Conduit, cable, pull boxes, and utility connections can add significant cost, especially when a site does not already have an electrical circuit. The utility connection can also add delays that are outside the city’s control. .

Solar changes the installation process. The fixture, solar panel, and battery are mounted on the pole, eliminating the need for trenching and a new utility connection. In Los Angeles, where the city is installing up to 60,000 solar streetlights over two years, crews can mount the units on existing poles in about 30 minutes after the prep work is complete.

A Florida improvement district recently installed 375 solar streetlights specifically to avoid trenching costs and grid-connection delays. The district also pointed to greater resilience during power outages and severe weather as an added benefit.

Solar also offers more flexibility after installation. Chilliwack, BC, installed its first solar streetlights along a road and at a park-and-ride lot with the option to move them later. That kind of flexibility is difficult with a hard-wired light.

This makes solar particularly useful for parks, trails, sports courts, transit shelters, parking lots, and industrial sites, especially where extending electrical infrastructure would be difficult, expensive, or unnecessary.

Solar is not a replacement for the grid everywhere. But for sites where extending the grid is costly or complicated, going solar can make installation faster, simpler, and more flexible.