Solar Street Lights for NYC
John, Bella, Julian, & Jordan
Writing For Engineering
City College of New York
Julianne Davidow, Professor
May 17th, 2024
Introduction
The modern city is a continuously evolving system of people, technology, and infrastructure. These three variables are deeply intertwined, and the relationships between them can be extremely complicated. Despite these complicated systems, cities can be successful by pursuing simple solutions that benefit residents environmentally, and economically. Perhaps now more than ever, cities are looking for ways to cut costs and reduce emissions, and New York City is no exception. A simple, yet effective initiative to achieve these economic and environmental goals is upgrading the City’s streetlights. We propose that the city should invest in solar powered LED street lights, as this would provide the environmental and economic benefits that are seriously needed.
Other/ Previous Innovations
Previous innovation in streetlight technology has been fairly disappointing, and this inspired our team to come up with something sustainable and better for the future and everyone’s well-being. The traditional streetlights, which are typically high-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps, have many flaws compared to LEDs. These HPS lamps have more expenses pertaining to electrical and laying costs, and they also present other problems, like causing excessive heat. Being high-voltage, they in turn release harmful chemicals like mercury. The harmful metals and rays from the traditional streetlight causes light pollution that will overall harm the quality of life for residents in the area (Leboda Lighting, 2022). LEDs are definitely a step forward towards sustainability, and even with all its benefits that counteract the harm of traditional streetlights, we are still looking to improve on it. LED lights by themselves can have downsides, like reducing insect population and emitting blue light that can be too bright. (Bertucci, 2023) This issue that LED streetlights by themselves cause can be improved by integrating solar power into the streetlights. This would mean less light pollution and protecting the environment from the damage that would cause.
Technical Description
The initiative to upgrade NYC streetlights consists of two separate, but related technical components; LED bulbs, and solar panels. Both are relatively recent innovations that have enormous potential for implementation in a cleaner, greener New York City. Solar panels have a history dating back to 1839 when French physicist Edmond Becquerel noticed that certain materials generated an electrical charge when exposed to sunlight (Hanania, et al. 2015). Since then, the efficiency of solar panels has improved drastically, with current leading technologies able to convert nearly 25% of sunlight to clean, carbon-free electricity (Merchant, 2004). LED light bulbs are an even more recent feat of electrical engineering, and the technology has progressed rapidly since its inception in the 1960s. Current LED bulbs operate at about 90% efficiency, meaning that nearly all of the incoming electricity is transformed into visible light, which keeps energy consumption to a minimum (Merchant, 2004). The combination of LEDs and solar panels, along with a small battery pack (see Fig. 2), provides an exciting energy-efficient alternative to NYC’s outdated street lights (W. Guijuan, 2011). The components complement each other and work in a simple, yet effective system. During the daytime hours, the solar panel converts sunlight to electricity which is then passed to the battery. At nightime, when the lights are required, the LED bulbs draw power from the battery pack.
Process of Innovation
This is the Calculations of the estimated costs of this project. The price of an average solar light fixture is fairly affordable, currently under $5,000. The materials and components add up to $3,000, with an additional installation cost of $1,800. While this requires a substantial initial investment, keep in mind that there will be considerable savings due to avoiding the costs of building and connecting to electrical infrastructure. These costs for typical lights would be over $3,000, and the cost of electricity in 5 years is estimated to increase to $1200 per non-solar light fixture (Johanson,2023). When we apply these numbers to the estimated total number of NYC street lights, currently over 300,000 (NYC DOT, n.d), then the calculations get interesting. The estimated cost of converting all of the NYC Streetlights would be $945,000,000. Costs of installation would be approximately $567,000,000, the total cost would be $1,512,000,000. Keep in mind we also avoid the costs of electricity in 5 years which would have been approximately $378,000,000. As well the cost of building and connecting to the electrical infrastructure , which could have been about $1,008,000,000 ( which doesn’t even factor in the maintenance of said infrastructure, which would have created even more costs for the city). This cost is justified considering the amount of money that will be saved on electricity, maintenance, and also the environmental benefits we mentioned in the previous section.
The estimated time for installing solar street lights is two per hour, and should be installed during the day time (Shickadance, n.d). If we also consider that the average length of daytime in New York is 12h (Climate.top, n.d) , and we account for the cities 315,000 street lights (NYC DOT,n.d) , Then without interruptions, the estimated time to change all of the street lights into solar street lights is approximately 13,125 days , or roughly 35 years. But that is only accounting for if we use only one construction team to put up the solar lights. If we increase the number of construction teams working on the project to 10, we are looking at 3.5 years. If the project has 20 teams , then we are looking at 1.75 years ( if there are no interuptions ) . But keep in mind that there may be interruptions because of possible things like hurricanes, or other weather / emergency events that may disrupt the building process.
There is a lot of variation in the amount of labor that street light installation takes. (Kanglight , n.d) states that the installation of the solar street lights require a minimum of 2 workers , A Journeyman electrician , and a Helper Trainee. But usually it requires more workers/trades people to put up street lights. The Journey man is typically paid $40 an hour + $20 per hour in benefits, while the helper is usually paid $28 per hour + $12 per hour benefits. The solar streetlights are also typically easier to install than traditional street lights (Anethic.com, 2023) . So not only that the new street lights will provide new employment opportunities for workers, but it will also be less of a hassle for workers, and will be easier for workers who may have slightly less expertise in the field to be able to construct the street lights.
Converting NYC’s street lights to solar-powered LEDs is a crucial step towards sustainability. This helps the city reach its goals of cutting carbon emissions and using energy more efficiently, which helps lead the city to a cleaner and greener future. There are opportunities for full scale deployments in specific areas throughout NYC. One such area is Belt Parkway. The conversion of street lights to solar LEDs, such as those in Belt Parkway, represents a significant opportunity for NYC. Along this roadway, there are about 2,300 150W HPS lights that can be upgraded to 108W LED lights. This conversion would cost approximately $2.8 million, which only covers the removal of old lights and the installation of new LED fixtures (New York City Department of Transportation). By focusing on upgrading and converting lights along the key routes, such as Belt Parkway, the city can make progress towards a more sustainable and cost efficient lighting infrastructure.
Conclusion
Our team can make an innovation that will allow for us to be benefitted, and have the environment benefitted as well at the same time. Our innovation is time, labor and cost efficient, meaning this will be ready in a short amount of time with minimal cost compared to other streetlights. LED/Solar hybrid streetlights are a step towards sustainability and the future of coexisting and preserving our environment, while giving residents better quality of life. Our innovation has environmental, social, and economic benefits that will overall make NYC thrive.
References
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Nyc.gov. (January 16, 2024) “Mayor Adams releases Preliminary Budget for Fiscal Year 2025”.
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