Turning everyday street lights into smart city superstars

Published Nov. 1, 2019 Source: Smart Cities Dive Author: Glenn Buck

Cities can leverage existing real estate like lampposts to become the IoT magnet for many city services not offered today.

Editor's Note: The following is a guest piece from Glenn Buck of Transition Networks.

Industry estimates suggest that nearly 70% of the world's population will be living in urban environments by 2050. To help make cities safer and more efficient, there is a significant push toward deploying smart city technologies, which can be implemented into manufacturing, public safety, utilities, transportation and tourism sectors, among others.

There are also use cases among not-so-"smart" objects, such as street lights, whose capabilities can change drastically as internet of things (IoT) technology is implemented.The smart street light

Many cities have already begun removing the incandescent lightbulbs in lampposts in favor of LED lighting, based on LED’s energy efficiency and cost savings, as well as the increased safety brought on by the brighter light. But these cities are now taking those upgrades a step further with smart lampposts to improve city-wide communications and safety.

Armed with sensors and wireless technologies, the street lamppost of the future will do much more than light the streets at night. Smart street lights may have features such as:

Solar power capabilities: Going a step further than the efficiency benefits of LED lightbulbs, which use up to 80% less energy than more traditional lighting, the smart lamppost will be outfitted with solar panels to not only power the lampposts lighting, but some of the other applications below like electric charging.

Read more here.