The most important role of street and safety lighting is to prevent road accidents and also provide the necessary light for clear vision at night. It helps to improve the safety of drivers, riders, and pedestrians. Moreover, the effectiveness of lighting in preventing accidents depends on its illuminance. Brighter the lighting, better is the visibility to prevent accidents. Street and safety lights improve visibility by reducing the glare impacts of headlights of approaching vehicles; they also improve the visibility of objects and markings on the roadway beyond the range of vehicle headlights. In addition, other factors, namely the need for energy-efficient lighting systems, increased demand for intelligent solutions in street lighting systems, and increasing penetration of LED lights and luminaires in street and safety lighting drive the deployment of street and safety lighting systems. Europe is expected to hold the largest size of the global street and safety lighting market in the next few years due to stringent government regulations pertaining to lighting efficiency followed by many European countries such as Germany, the UK, France, and Italy, while the market in APAC is expected to grow at the highest rate in the coming years.
Global Street and Safety Lighting Market Drivers
Drivers that boost the growth of the street and safety lighting market have been listed below:
• Need for improvement in visibility and safety of drivers, riders, and pedestrians
• Modernisation and development of infrastructure such as smart cities
• Need for energy-efficient lighting systems
• Increased demand for intelligent solutions in street lighting systems
• Increasing penetration of LED lights and luminaires in street and safety lighting solutions
Figure 1: Decreasing prices of Light-emitting diodes and need for energy-efficient lighting solutions propel THE street and safety lighting market growth at present
Source: American Lighting Association, Investor Presentations, Annual Reports, Press Releases, Expert Interviews, and MarketsandMarkets Analysis
Opportunities that are likely to propel the market growth in the near future have been listed below:
• Promotional activities toward energy efficiency in developing economies
• Development of wireless technology for street lighting systems
• Penetration of IoT technology in smart street lighting
Street and safety lighting plays a crucial role in clear vision and avoiding road accidents as proven by some research studies:
According to the report by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA, UK) (2015), 25% of car drivers travel between 19:00 and 08:00; and 40% of fatal and serious injuries take place during this period. Also, a report by the Institute for Road Safety Research (SWOV) of Netherlands revealed that a relatively large proportion of nighttime accidents occur on unlit roads. Furthermore, the Department for Transport (UK) interpreted that about 63.8% respondents believed that improved street lighting would lead to fewer accidents on the roads. In 2007, the UK Highways Agency revised its estimate of the effectiveness of road lighting for reducing road accidents from 30% to 10%. In addition, in 2002, according to the Research on the Interrelation between Illuminance at Intersections and the Reduction in Traffic Accidents report, there was a 43% reduction in night-time accidents at junctions after the provision of lighting. Thus, street and safety lighting plays a vital role in avoiding road accidents and also provides a clear vision on the road.
Figure 2: Best Benefits of light-emitting diodes in street and safety lighting
Source: Investor Presentations, Annual Reports, Press Releases, Expert Interviews, and MarketsandMarkets Analysis
Key Competitors in the Street and Safety Lighting Market:
The prominent players operating in the street and safety lighting market are as follows:
1. Philips Lighting (Netherlands) has been a leader in street and safety lighting market for a long time and has an extensive array of products that are used in residential, commercial, streets, and highways and tunnels lighting. A major advantage that Philips has over other competitors is its extensive product portfolio. Philips offers outdoor lighting solutions for roads (streetlights and car lights), public spaces, residential areas, and sports arenas.
2. General Electric (US) has an extensive product portfolio of street and safety lighting solutions. GE manufactures and sells a variety of energy-efficient solutions for commercial, industrial, municipal, and consumer applications all over the world, utilising LED, fluorescent, halogen, and HID technologies. In addition, the company focuses on building connected lighting using various software platforms. GE offers a full range of lighting solutions and services for ceilings, parking lots, signage displays, roadways, sports arenas, and other applications.
3. OSRAM (Germany) operates through its specialty lighting, opto semiconductors, lighting solutions and systems, and lamps business divisions. OSRAM Licht AG also provides lighting solutions and specialty products featuring energy-saving technologies. OSRAM is one of the major suppliers of street and safety lighting under the ‘lighting solutions and systems’ business segment. The company has 2 subsidiaries, namely, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors GmbH (Germany) that designs and manufactures opto-semiconductor products and OSRAM Sylvania, Inc. (US) that produces and markets a wide variety of lighting products for businesses, homes, and transportation.
4. Cree, Inc. (US) develops and manufactures lighting-class LED products, lighting products, and semiconductor products for power and radio-frequency applications. Cree provides products for indoor and outdoor lighting, video displays, transportation, electronic signs and signals, power supplies, inverters, and wireless systems. Cree operates through 3 business segments, namely, LED products, lighting products, and power and RF products. Lighting products are used across office and retail spaces, restaurants, schools and universities, street and roadways, hospitals, airports, and parking structures. Cree, Inc. sells its products under brands such as BetaLED, LEDway, Ruud Lighting Direct, E-conolight, Kramer Lighting, Beta/Kramer, and Beta Lighting.
5. Acuity Brands Lighting (US) offers conventional lighting solutions as well as connected lighting control technology for consumer, industrial, and decorative lighting applications. Key offerings of the company include devices such as luminaires, lighting controls, lighting components, power supplies, prismatic skylights, and integrated lighting systems for indoor and outdoor applications. Acuity operates across North America, Europe, and Asia. The company sells lighting solutions through independent sales agents, electrical wholesalers, and sales representatives covering specific geographic areas. Products are delivered directly or through a network of distribution centers, regional warehouses, and commercial warehouses using both common carriers and company-owned truck fleet.
Figure 3: Energy-efficient street and safety lighting project cycle
Source: United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Industry Journals, Expert Interviews, Primary Respondents, Industry Associations, IEEE Journals, Annual Reports, and MarketsandMarkets Analysis
Other Important Players in the Street and Safety Lighting Market are as follows:
Eaton (Ireland), Kingsun Optoelectronic (China), Thorn Lighting (UK), LED Roadway Lighting Ltd. (Canada), and Hubbell (US).
Key Innovators That Are Increasing Their Market Presence are as follows:
Several new players, namely Neptun Light (US), Tapan Solar Energy (India), Tanko Lighting (US), and Sunna Design (France) are entering the street and safety lighting market.
Industry Expert Insights On Street And Safety Lighting:
Source: Investor Presentations, Annual Reports, Press Releases, Expert Interviews, and MarketsandMarkets Analysis
Street and Safety Lighting Market: Key Global Trends
• A solar standalone streetlight system consists of a pole, battery bank, photovoltaic module, and LED or CFL luminaires. The use of solar power coupled with energy-efficient luminaires makes it more environmentally friendly. The configuration can be customised to the wattage and brightness required, and it can be designed for dusk-to-dawn operations with the required number of days of autonomy.
• A smart street and safety lighting system can be controlled by a remote, and it saves energy by using the precise amount of light and accurately measuring every watt used. Also, low maintenance costs and real-time fault monitoring are the key features of this system.
• LED lamps comprise a major segment of the street and safety lighting market. LED lamps are expected to offer more complex solutions, ensuring comfort, security, and flexibility to end users.
• Smart street lighting is expected to have significant potential in the coming years. The smart lighting market is growing rapidly with the growing industries and smart city projects. Until recently, illuminating the dark was the main reason for the deployment of street lighting systems. However, street lamps are expected to perform many more functions in the future. They would notify or register a change in traffic volume and feed that data into an intelligent transport system (ITS). Street lighting would be a part of a networked urban infrastructure. This acts as a driver for the growth of the smart street lighting system market.
• The market for street and safety lighting systems having lighting efficiency between 50 W and 150 W is expected to grow at the highest rate in the near future owing to the rising adoption of LED lamps with lighting efficiency of 50 W and 150 W for street and roadway lighting applications.
• The street and safety lighting market in APAC is likely to grow at a significant rate due to modernisation and development of infrastructure across various countries such as India, China, Japan, and South Korea.
• High adoption of smart street lighting for energy conservation and ecological safety purposes provides an opportunity to street and safety lighting solution service providers.
• At present, the UAE holds the largest share of the street and safety lighting market in the Middle East as the main agenda of the Middle East Smart Lighting and Energy Summit (2017) is the transition of the lighting industry from traditional lighting to smart street lighting and the introduction of energy-efficient technologies in street lighting.
• In 2015, the Indian government announced to replace all conventional streetlights with LED streetlights since conserving power is more economical than producing more. India has 35 million streetlights that generate ~3,400 MW of energy; by using LEDs, this can be brought down to 1,400 MW, saving 9,000 million kWh of electricity annually, worth USD 850 million.
• The street and safety lighting market in Rest of Europe expected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period owing to the rising awareness about energy conservation in countries such as Spain and the Netherlands
• Canada is likely to exhibit the highest growth in the North American street and safety lighting market is primarily due to government initiatives and increasing awareness regarding energy-efficient lighting systems in the country.
• Global market size forecast: 2013–2022 (Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America) — Europe is likely to continue to hold the largest market share in the coming years.
Adoption of LED Lamps for Street and Safety Lighting Applications in the Coming Years:
LED is the fastest-growing light source across various applications such as highways, tunnels, and roadways. At present, many companies are focusing on designing LED lighting systems composed of thin films of polymers or organic molecules, which helps to create next-generation LED lighting systems that are highly efficient. The rising demand for energy-efficient lighting systems and strict regulations pertaining to discontinuation of incandescent lamps are driving the deployment of LED lamps for various applications such as highways, streets, and roadways. Due to the high energy efficiency of LEDs, the energy savings are significant. According to the European Commission (EC), the implementation of LEDs can save up to 70% of the energy used for lighting as well as associated energy costs. Philips provided an LED lighting fixture and a small device attached to the lighting fixture that is necessary for access to a web-based management platform called CityTouch. Through the installation of this fixture, along with a device, the street lighting management system can communicate with every single LED light fixture through an individual control module. The communication between CityTouch and LED lights is established through the local mobile network.
Applications of Street and Safety Lighting Solutions
Highways
• High demand for energy-efficient lighting
• Implementation of LEDs on highways to minimise carbon emissions
• Need to minimise road accidents by improving visibility
Street and Roadways
• Replacement of traditional light sources by energy-efficient sources such as LEDs
• Installation of street and safety lighting solutions on community roads for safety purposes
Others (Bridges and Tunnels)
• Increasing use of LED street lights for providing comfort and safety to drivers, pedestrians, and riders
Summary
The increasing need for improved visibility and safety of drivers, riders, and pedestrians and energy-efficient lighting solutions, and the rising awareness of energy-efficient and carbon-free lighting solutions are the key reasons behind the growth of the street and safety lighting market. Also, stringent regulations related to the discontinuation of incandescent lamps in countries such as the US, the UK, Mexico, and Germany is another factor that drives the adoption of LED lamps in street and safety lighting solutions. The penetration of the IOT technology in lighting solutions will make them smarter.
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