Using solar power as an alternative source of electrical energy for street lighting in Ghana

Abstract

Streetlights in Ghana receive electrical energy from the national grid. To pay for the energy consumed, residential consumers on the grid are levied 0.0001 of their total monthly consumption. Unfortunately, these levies are inadequate to defray the cost. There is therefore the need to look at other alternative sources of electrical power, which do not depend on the national grid to light the streetlights. The findings show that most streetlights in Ghana are not metered, thus making it impossible to bill the respective District Assemblies. Again, the socio-political climate in the country complicates the design process by not allowing for ample time for a thorough design work to be done before incorporating streetlights onto the national grid. This paper discusses the use of solar power as an alternative source of electrical energy for street lighting in Ghana. It proposes the use of LED-based lighting systems that receive energy from lead-acid batteries, charged by the solar panels. The design has an auto turn-on and turn-off for the streetlights and for charging the back-up batteries. The expectation is that changing to the LED-based street lighting system will lead to an increased initial installation cost but the savings made due to the reduced maintenance cost is enormous.