This article was originally published by Sarah Wray on Cities today, the leading news platform for urban mobility and innovation reaching an international audience of city guides. For the latest updates, see Cities Today Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Youtubeor sign up for Cities Today News.
Global investments in LED and intelligent street lighting, as well as additional sensors for street lighting infrastructure, are expected to total $ 28.1 billion over the next decade, according to the Northeast Group Market forecast.
The market research company for intelligent infrastructures assumes that the coronavirus will only “disrupt the intelligent street lighting sector to a limited extent”, but forecasts an increase in the use of new financing models and market consolidation.
There are 326 million street lights worldwide and these are expected to grow to over 361 million by the end of 2029. Overall, LED and smart street lights are expected to account for 73 percent and 23 percent, respectively, of the total street light market by then as cities try to save money and lay the foundation for smart city projects in the areas of mobility, public safety, sustainability and more.
So far, a quarter of all street lights worldwide have been switched to LEDs and over 10 million intelligent street lights have been connected.
financing
The report finds that infrastructure investment funds, energy service companies (ESCOs) and city government companies are playing an increasing role in funding and executing smart street lighting projects. This trend is predicted to be exacerbated by municipal budget constraints caused by economic problems related to Covid.
“The challenges of 2020 have compounded some of the key trends already emerging in the smart street lighting market,” said Chris Testa, research director at Northeast Group.
“Covid-19 highlighted the importance of automation and resilience for cities. With reduced municipal budgets, access to finance through ESCOs and other third parties is becoming increasingly important. Likewise, a step-by-step approach to smart cities, starting with smart street lighting before other applications are used, and a focus on choosing interoperable software platforms that can serve multiple smart city segments are major trends that have only been gaining momentum in the past year have won. ”
Consolidation
The sixth edition of the Global Smart Street Lights and Smart Cities: Market Forecast notes that large-scale smart street lighting initiatives are currently underway in almost every region of the world.
As the market evolves, the intelligent street lighting supplier landscape remains extremely fragmented and “ripe for consolidation,” says the Northeast Group.
San Diego has smart streetlight program sparked controversy over privacy and surveillance concerns, As a result, the mayor recently ordered the sensors and cameras to be disabled pending governance regulation. The city is in the process of developing regulations to regulate the use of surveillance technologies, including the establishment of a data protection advisory board made up of volunteer citizens.
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Published on December 30, 2020 – 01:00 UTC
