Preliminary analysis of stand-alone street lighting system with PV and battery: measurements and simulations of a case study

In the present paper a solution composed by monocrystalline PV cells directly applied at the cylindrical surfaces of the pole was studied. The innovative aspect is related to the application of high efficiency cells to a curve face (in general, only amorphous cells can be applied with lower efficiency and productivity of the final configuration). In lighting side, Light Emitting Diode (LED) is used together with a dimmer control system. The data of this lighting system installed in the center of Italy were monitored for one year in terms of LED consumptions, PV productivity, and State of Charge (SOC) of the battery. These results allow to study a model that simulates the behavior of the system. A case study of a green area located in the center of Italy was also simulated by DIALux software and several scenarios were reproduced in order to evaluate the benefit of this installation instead of a standard Public Lighting System (PLS). It can be observed that the stand-alone system fails to provide sufficient illumination despite strong lamp dimming: only in July and August the production is sufficient to cover the consumptions. In an adaptive scenario, a hypothesis could be the addition of 270 W photovoltaic panel to produce a surplus of energy.