For short insight check this video.

Street lighting. The important area of product’s innovations and development is street lighting. It goes in several main directions. The most important is solar source of energy enabling energy independence and significant savings. The solar cells are vertically integrated into light columns protecting the solar cells from dust requiring almost no maintenance. Another is design: The columns are becoming more differentiated or even customized to be better incorporated into surroundings or to stand out while the lamps are increasingly emphasizing design to be part of integral functional solution. Additionally, there are new features integrated in the columns: cameras, screens, phone or cars charging stations, as well as different types of coating – columns with anti-graffiti coating preventing penetration of graffiti paint, columns with coating preventing stickers and posters to be placed on the columns, luminescent columns, absorbing sunlight during the day and using energy stored from this to radiate neon green at night for several hours. It is also possible to create surface textures resembling wood, marble or to use own digital print.

Safety. One of the main themes at this year’s Light & Building was safety and security technology. The most interesting to us were the products and technologies connected with traffic safety and special industry requirements, such as explosion-proof products.  The safety and security were also the themes at the first Intersec Forum, a two-day conference for networked safety and security technology in the context of intelligent buildings.

Digitalization. The spotlight of this year’s Light & Building was on digitalization. The industry showed intelligent solutions and future-oriented technologies revolving around digitalization and networking, intelligent home and building automation and efficient energy management.

Building integrated lighting. The lighting solutions are becoming more building integrated – planned as integral part of building structures – walls, ceilings and floors. As such they implicate complicated graphical designs, colors, color temperatures, decorative patterns, dynamic animation etc.

Creative solutions. As LED technology has had an extremely positive impact on reducing energy consumption; energy efficiency does not stand in the way of creative solutions but rather encourages them. International manufacturers exhibited their innovations relating to human-centric lighting and its applications in the most diverse everyday areas. There are, for example, lamps equipped with both warm white (3000 K) and cold white (6500 K) LEDs. This set-up, in combination with digital light control, enables individual choice of the color mix. By changing the intensity of the light and the color temperature, the changes in daylight during the course of the day can be imitated. Imitation of daylight is not an easy task, since daylight is not only determined by brightness, but also by the dynamics, progression and color of the light. It is only in the last few years that it has become technically possible to implement a lighting scheme in interior spaces that has a biological effect. Various studies have demonstrated its effectiveness, for example in offices/schools/work and learning facilities people perform better, show greater concentration levels with an improvement in motivation. The speakers provided information on the latest development, best-practice examples and effects that light has on human beings.

Certification. The lighting industry has gone through many changes over the years and as the number of LED projects continues to increase, the market faces new challenges in terms of quality and safety. The market is flooded with products that are not necessarily meeting quality and safety standards, with no real differentiation to distinguish between brands or outputs. Companies tend to produce their own performance test reports to differentiate themselves from the competition, but these reports are not validated by third parties and value claims are often misleading or unclear. There are no unified schemes to help customers and consumers choose their products wisely by taking all safety and performance issues into consideration. However, this Fair shows positive steps the leading companies are doing in order to raise quality of products and achieve common understanding of their features.

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The main topics were focused on financing energy projects: competent preparation of the project as a prerequisite for funding, networking and cooperation between business and the public sector through public-private partnerships, presentation of financial models (ESCO, EPC, revolving funds, crowdfunding), credit lines and spezialized funds for projects of renewable energy and energy efficiency (EBRD, EEEF, FZOEU, HBOR, HAMAG-BICRO).

To the representatives of G-SolarLed this event was another opportunity for contacts with potential partners and clients.

Efficient management of energy consumption is one of the greatest challenges for the European Union. For Croatia it is also potentially very important new market where the actions taken and investments could significantly contribute to a new cycle of economic growth and job creation. In the last two and a half years only the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund (FZOEU)  has approved a total of more than 100 million € of subsidies, which directly stimulates about 210 million € investment. Such investment projects result in savings for investors and environmental benefits. Moreover, the sector of energy efficiency means creating a whole new range of products, services and activities, from design solutions and production technology to a comprehensive energy services that include monitoring the energy performance of buildings and energy systems, monitoring of energy consumption in buildings, public lighting systems, industrial plants, renewable energy systems, measurement and verification of savings, education of responsible persons, influence on the behavior of energy users.

Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund, the main agency funding energy projects presented examples of good practice in the framework of the current programs for local and regional government units, for the private sector and the citizens. The funds are intended for financing the reconstruction of family houses, residential and industrial buildings, energy-efficient construction, promoting renewable energy, setting up energy-efficient street lighting, encouraging cleaner transport and purchase of energy-efficient household appliances.

Lighting is during last years the segment that is at the center of energy efficiency and the traditional lighting is increasingly replaced with LED lighting. As explained by Ranko Skansi from the company Solar Led, LED technology has been known since the 1960s but due to technological progress is suitable for use only in the last few years. This progress goes on in the direction of organic LED (OLED) lighting. It was pointed out that the big problem in the market is a broad range of prices leading to misunderstandings of local governments that are the most common buyers of lighting. Skansi believes that a stronger education of leading people in the municipalities and cities should be made in terms of the characteristics, standards and norms of public lighting in order to better understand the needs, requirements and quality behind the price.

Zvonko Maras from the company Solar Panel System spoke about trends in solar business in Croatia that do not correspond to global trends. After the change of tariffs and in anticipation of the new ordinance on solar energy, the Energy Efficiency Fund, through co-financed projects, is almost the only buyer of the solar panels. In Germany, which has much less sunny days than Croatia, in production technology of solar energy is put as much as in wind technology, said Maras, but a new law should regulate this issue to protect small producers and the principle of energy production at the place of consumption.

Source: Poslovni dnevnik

In August 2015 the city of Pleternica introduced new G-SolarLED lights in public lighting system. The lamps GSL240 of 28W, 98W and 112W were installed on one section of state roadway D525 and related footpath. This is only the first part of the modernization of public lighting system, which is primarily concerned with road lighting to achieve greater traffic safety, as well as general safety of citizens. Installing LED lights on the new 2km promenade will also have impact on the visual element of spatial planning. Daily visible and accessible, energy efficient public lighting encourages awareness of people about the need and benefits of efficient use of energy. Finally, setting the LED lights on the entire public area, supported by solar park installation, will reduce public lighting costs up to 65%.  This enables reallocation of the city budget to other projects important for the local community.

Limit energy usage and emissions. In terms of transport, it can be done by decreasing the use of motorized transportation and replace it .by walking, riding a bicycle, driving an electro/hybrid vehicle, use public transportation. In terms of housing, it can be done by choosing house appliances that are energy savers.

Obtain “cleaner” electricity through use of renewable energy sources. It can  be implemented through installing solar panels or utilizing biofuels for energy or heat production.

Offset emissions. It can be implemented simply by avoiding emissions. Or through neutralizing the emissions by planting trees or participating in carbon projects. Another option is to purchase carbon credits. Offsetting is a market-based mechanism and is typically transacted in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂-e). 1 offset implies 1 ton of CO_2. It is a “credit” from a renewable energy project that replaces traditional polluting sources of electricity with clean, secure and sustainable renewable sources of energy (solar power, wind power, hydroelectricity, forest regeneration). Purchasing one ton of carbon offset means there will be one ton less  of carbon dioxide (or an equivalent greenhouse gas) in the atmosphere than there otherwise would have been.  The purchasing of carbon offsets is made from either a project developer, certified by an internationally accredited organization or from the open market, where the appropriate carbon offsets are allocated and then sold to buyers who may need them for compliance with set standards and requirements.

Many businesses now realize that reducing carbon emissions is not only good for the environment but also for the brand to be recognized as environmentally conscious, to add values to existing products and services and consequently increase overall stakeholder value.

In terms of public lighting, smart cities concept is not limited only to energy efficiency achieved through the replacement of traditional lighting with new LED lighting. It also recognizes public lighting system as resource and upgrade for other developing city systems.  At large, they all contribute to the intelligent city monitoring and management, safety and quality of living.

According to the IHS Technology definition, smart cities are those that have “deployed or are currently piloting, the integration of information, communications and technology solutions across three or more different functional areas of a city.  These functional areas include mobile and transport, energy and sustainability, physical infrastructure, governance and safety and security.”  Based on this definition, IHS Technology report predicts that there will be at least 88 smart cities all over the world by 2025, up from 21 in 2013. While the combined Europe-Middle East-Africa region represents currently the largest number of smart cities, according to forecasts, by 2025 the Asia-Pacific region will be accountable for majority of smart cities.

Smart cities development is motivated by major challenges, including increasing pressure on public finances. In practice, the concept includes different models of financing and implementation. One of those, often used in public lighting projects is ESCO (Energy service companies) as model of guaranteed savings.  This principle is also used by G-SolarLed projects enabling full support to local communities in achievement of  immediate savings and transfer of available funds into other areas.

Located in an industrial park in the suburb of Albertslund, the experimental open air laboratory provides a space for companies to test a variety of new street lighting technologies. It is hoped that one of these designs could be selected by the city to transform the streets of Copenhagen. Each lighting solution will be provided with its own IP address for close monitoring. The city will be able to assess different street light solutions that can track traffic, air quality, noise, weather conditions, UV radiation and other environmental factors.

Copenhagen was awarded the title of European Green Capital 2014 for its achievements, notably in terms of eco-innovation and sustainable mobility, and its commitment to act as a role model for the green economy, in Europe and beyond. The European Green Capital Award represents recognition of efforts to make cities more pleasant places to live and work.

G-SolarLed solutions tend to develop similar concept by influencing quality of public lighting within local communities. The use of ecologically more acceptable sources of light results with several long-term benefits: higher light quality influences elimination of light pollution through lower emissions of carbon-dioxide, enhances traffic safety and enables significant savings in setting-up and maintaining the public lightning system and costs of energy consumption. Different types of application and rated power satisfy a wide range of needs within public lighting system.