Annual deployments of new smart poles for street lighting, featuring sensors and connectivity, willl increase at a compound rate of more than 50 per cent per year, from just 600 initial installations in 2019 to 22,000 in 2028, according to analyst company Navigant Research.
At the same time, Navigant Research said global revenue from in-building lighting controls, in commercial real estate, will increase at a compund rate of 5.4 per cent per year in the period to 2028.
The high forecasts for smart poles is down to the novelty of the hardware innovation, to combine smart technologies with lighting in new street poles. Smart controls for in-building lighting are reasonably well established already, with renovations and new-build projects.
Both outdoor lighting infrastructure and indoor lighting controls – along with related hardware, software, and services – will show significant growth in the period, said Navigant Research. The company has produced new reports on both smart poles and lighting controls in commercial buildings.
Both markets are being driven by the business case (twinned with the environmental case) for LED lighting, bringing cost and energy savings to cities and real estate owners. The building sector, which contributes around 40 per cent of global carbon emissions, also faces regulation around clean energy targets.
Smart poles come with a connection to the electricity grid and a physical location along streets, making them an attractive host for mobile broadband small cells, including 5G small cells, as well as public wi-fi access points.
The standard arithmetic says smart street lighting delivers a 70-75 per cent reduction in energy costs, with 50 per cent achieved just by switching to LED (light-emitting diode) bulbs, and a further 20-25 per cent eked out with lighting controls. Payback is pegged at around five years.
The business case for LEDs in both outdoor and indoor scenarios affords their owners and managers the chance to also hang other smart applications off lighting infrastructure, including variously for such things as air-quality monitoring, room occupancy monitoring, environmental cotrols, traffic and pedestrian monitoring, and even such solutions as gun-shot and gully monitoring.
Grant Samms, research analyst at Navigant Research, said: “Though a nascent market, several smart pole drivers have emerged, including current and future needs for public connectivity and cellular network densification. Municipalities are also seeing smart poles as infrastructure that can create new revenue streams and improve public safety by providing charging for electric vehicles, charging for cellular phones, a platform for advertising, and other features.”
Krystal Maxwell, senior research analyst with Navigant Research, commented: “Building codes and the desire and requirements to save energy are helping to push forward the lighting controls market. As controls continue to advance in sophistication, the drive toward increased building data is expected to propel the connected controls market, increasing adoption of all controls.”
The twin reports from Navigant Research break down the smart poles and in-building lighting controls markets by segment and region, and provide forecasts for revenues for each. The in-building report says Asia Pacific will account for roughly half of revenue for lighting controls in 2019 thanks to a large building stock and quick renovation rates.
ABI Research said last year annual revenue from smart street lights will grow at compound annual rate of 31 per cent to reach $1.7 billion in 2026. Juniper Research claims street lighting upgrades will deliver $15 billion in cumulative energy savings for cities in the period to 2023.
Next-generation smart building solutions are forecast to generate over $2 billion in software and services revenues by 2026, according to ABI Research. The market is expected to expand at a compound rate of 32 per cent over the eight years.
