Solar-powered lighting will be a major spearhead for Philips Lighting in the coming years. It developed new products for that purpose, which will be applied for the first time in large-scale street lighting projects in India and Thailand. The Eindhovens Dagblad reports that the company announced this last week. Nothing was disclosed about the financial details.
Lighting will install around 84,000 solar-powered streetlights in India. For the largest part, 60,000, it will cooperate with state energy company EESL. In addition, Lighting is collaborating with UPNEDA, a department responsible for renewable energy initiatives in the Uttar Pradesh region. Here, 24,000 streetlights will be installed. The projects are part of the continued growth of the company's solar energy arm.
Solar-powered
Solar-powered street lights (Philips SunStay) were launched in India late last year. The global launch will follow in the second quarter of this year. According to Lighting, the all-in-one lights, where the solar panel, luminaire, charge controller and battery are in one housing, are more efficient than existing systems in the solar street lighting market.
In Thailand, the lighting company recently installed seven hundred connected solar lighting units with so-called remote monitoring and data analysis options. The streetlights are located near Bangkok airport.
Safety
About 17 per cent of the world's population (more than 1 billion people) is not connected to the mains and thus has no light after sunset. To enable access to lighting and power, Philips Lighting launched the Philips LifeLight solar lantern in India in December 2017. Besides a USB port for charging phones and other devices, LifeLight comes with a replaceable battery. Apart from extending the day for commercial, education and community activities, the lights also make life safer. In fact, today, lamps are still often used on the highly flammable paraffin. According to a World Bank report, nearly one and a half million people die every year from forest fires caused by paraffin or candles.
Source: Eindhovens Dagblad.
