$6.6 Billion IS to be Invested in LED Street Lighting and a Further $1.4 Billion Invested in Smart Street Lighting Over the Next Decade
The US street lighting market is rapidly evolving. When the publisher first surveyed the US streetlight market back in 2012, LED streetlights were still primarily being piloted, utilities had not developed LED streetlight tariffs, the business case for smart/connected street lighting was undeveloped, and cities remained wary of vendor and third-party financing.
All of these factors have changed dramatically in the past six years. LED luminaires are becoming the default as existing streetlights expire and smart streetlights are forming the basis of more expansive smart city projects.
Cities now realize that LED and smart streetlights provide a unique opportunity to save costs while simultaneously improving public safety and offering new services to their residents. States are also now getting involved to promote these projects in smaller cities. These trends will lead to continued growth in the market, with $6.6 billion invested in LED street lighting and a further $1.4 billion invested in smart street lighting over the next decade.
To assess these transformations, the publisher conducted the most comprehensive survey of the US street lighting market to date, researching the number of streetlights, ownership structure, and conversion status of over 300 of the largest cities (cities with a population over 100,000). This includes a sample size more than three times larger than existing data from the US Department of Energy.
The publisher also gathered data from all leading vendors to compile market share for streetlight controls and communications and assessed primary data from awarded contracts to analyze pricing trends.
The results of this survey demonstrate that many of the initial challenges are being overcome and benefits are being realized. Cities have seen real energy savings and innovative financing and tariff structures–along with declining prices–have made these projects attractive for a majority of US cities.
Indeed, the next step appears to be integrating these projects into larger smart city deployments. This final step presents new challenges, and until they are overcome, some cities will wait to invest in smart street lighting. But the enormous opportunities presented by smart street lighting and smart cities mean that these obstacles too will soon be overcome, leading to $8 billion in cumulative investment over the next decade.
Key questions answered in this study:
- How many streetlights are there in each of the 306 largest US cities, who owns them, and how have they progressed towards LED and smart conversions?
- What is the market share of both the largest streetlight communications vendors and the controls vendors?
- What cities have upcoming RFPs or have started streetlight projects without selecting a vendor for a full conversion?
- How have prices shifted in recent smart streetlight tenders?
- What is the ten-year forecast for LED and smart street lighting across all segments (cobra head, decorative, etc.)?
Table of Contents
i. Executive Summary
1. What’s new in 2018?
2. US streetlight survey results
3. US street lighting overview
4. Market forecast
5. Vendors
6. Appendix
6.1 Full results of 306-city survey
6.2 Methodology
6.3 LED & smart street lighting overview
6.4 List of abbreviations and companies covered
List of Figures, Boxes, and Tables
US LED and smart street lighting: key takeaways
Figure 1.1: Recent smart streetlight activity in the US
Figure 1.2: Notable US smart streetlight projects
Figure 1.3: Annual smart streetlight deployments by project type
Figure 1.4: Cities in Northeast Group’s US streetlight database
Figure 1.5: Metropolitan Area Planning Council (Massachusetts) smart streetlight bids
Table 1.1: Smart city requirements in Kansas City RFP
Table 1.2: Smart city applications
Table 1.3: ESCOs and smart city integrators
Figure 1.6: Streetlight ownership by number of cities
Figure 1.7: Streetlight ownership by number of streetlights
Table 1.4: Cities that re-purchased or are considering purchasing their streetlights
Figure 1.8: Notable utilities with LED streetlight tariffs
Table 1.5: Streetlight communications comparison
Figure 1.9: US streetlight networking market share (deployed as of end of 2017)
Figure 1.10: US streetlight networking market share (deployed and announced)
Figure 1.11: US streetlight controllers/nodes market share (deployed as of end of 2017)
Figure 1.12: US streetlight controllers/nodes market share (deployed and announced)
Figure 1.13: Estimates of total number of streetlights in the US by year
Figure 2.1: Cities in Northeast Group’s US streetlight database
Figure 2.2: Scatterplot of city population and number of streetlights from survey
Figure 2.3: Streetlight ownership by number of cities
Figure 2.4: Streetlight ownership by number of streetlights
Figure 2.5: Cities in survey categorized by LED and smart streetlight progress
Table 2.1: Cities in survey with full smart streetlight projects completed or underway
Figure 2.6: Cities in survey with full smart streetlight projects completed or underway
Figure 2.7: Notable US smart streetlight projects
Table 2.2: Cities in survey with full LED streetlight projects completed or underway
Figure 2.8: Notable completed/underway LED (but not connected) streetlight projects
Figure 2.9: Cities in survey with full LED streetlight projects completed or underway
Figure 2.10: LED conversion progress among cities that have conversions underway
Table 2.3: Cities in survey with incomplete progress towards LED streetlight projects
Figure 2.11: Cities in survey with incomplete progress towards LED streetlight projects
Table 2.4: Notable recent RFPs and tenders
Table 2.5: Cities in survey with some LED streetlight progress and/or pilot projects
Figure 2.12: Cities in survey with some LED streetlight progress and/or pilot projects
Table 2.6: Cities in survey with no public LED streetlight plans
Figure 2.13: Cities in survey with no public LED streetlight plans
Figure 3.1: US outdoor lighting by segment
Figure 3.2: US streetlights by luminaire type
Figure 3.3: Growth in LED penetration rate in the US
Table 3.1: LED and smart streetlight costs and benefits
Figure 3.4: Smart streetlight benefits (10-year savings)
Table 3.2: Additional benefits to smart streetlights not fully captured in quantitative benefit analysis
Table 3.3: Challenges to implementing smart and LED streetlight projects
Figure 3.5: Notable utilities with LED streetlight tariffs
Figure 3.6: Notable states with LED and/or smart streetlight conversion initiatives
Figure 4.1: Cumulative investment in LED and smart streetlights
Table 4.1: Cumulative investment in LED and smart streetlights
Figure 4.2: Cumulative LED streetlight forecast with installation separate
Figure 4.3: Scatterplot of city population and #streetlights from the publisher's survey
Figure 4.4: Estimates of total number of streetlights in the US by year
Figure 4.5: Percentage of annual streetlight deployments that will be LED
Figure 4.6: Installed base of legacy streetlights and annual shipments of LED streetlights
Figure 4.7: US LED and smart streetlight penetration rate
Figure 4.8: Annual LED and smart streetlight shipments
Figure 4.9: Average cost per streetlight of smart LED projects
Figure 4.10: Metropolitan Area Planning Council (Massachusetts) smart streetlight bids
Figure 5.1: US streetlight networking market share (deployed as of end of 2017)
Figure 5.2: US streetlight networking market share (deployed and announced)
Figure 5.3: US streetlight controllers/nodes market share (deployed as of end of 2017)
Figure 5.4: US streetlight controllers/nodes market share (and announced)
Table 5.1: Notable changes to smart streetlight competitive landscape since 2017
Figure 5.5: Smart lighting value chain
Figure 5.6: Major smart streetlight projects by communications vendor
Table 5.2: Smart street lighting communications vendors
Figure 5.7: Major smart streetlight projects by controls/nodes vendor
Table 5.3: Streetlight control hardware vendors
Figure 5.8: Major LED and smart streetlight projects by ESCO and/or project integrator
Table 5.4: ESCOs and smart city integrators
Table 5.5: General LED lighting vendors
Figure 6.1: Streetlight directional control
Figure 6.2: Common types of streetlight fixtures
Table 6.1: LED streetlight benefits
Table 6.2: Different types of streetlight luminaires
Figure 6.3: Smart streetlight model with RF and PLC communications systems
Table 6.3: HPS to LED wattage cross reference
Figure 6.4: LED streetlight cost benefit in US
Figure 6.5: 10-year break even point for networked streetlights
Table 6.4: Streetlight financing options
Figure 6.6: Legal framework for assessing liability of streetlights
Table 6.5: Dimming criteria for the standard IESNA RP
