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tion and 6% of global carbon dioxide emissions according to the latest
data from International Energy Agency.
Typically, Smart Lighting means switching to LED technologies,
which would cut energy use by at least 50%. However, benefits could
be even higher if turning existing infrastructures into smart networks
to better control energy consumption and increase lighting efficiency.
A modular wireless full mesh network platform – such as PE.AMI
by Paradox Engineering (from hereon referred to as the company)
– is the ideal technology to put this vision into practice, as it allows
cities to build a self-configuring and self-healing architecture which
can easily be managed and possibly scaled over time. By connecting
luminaires to an integrated network, these acquire the capability to
receive and transmit data as well as execute commands, thus enabling
remote monitoring and control functions.
As a result, municipalities or local service providers are able to
define a customised lighting pattern for single districts, streets and
even single lamps, managing on/off and dimming actions accord-
ing to programmed schedules (ie. combinations of time, daily solar
W
orld population is growing and increasingly moving to
urban areas. By 2050, about 70% of world population will
live in cities and we will count around 40 megacities with
more than 10 million inhabitants across the globe, most of them in
emerging countries. Urban infrastructures are under severe stress, as
it becomes harder to satisfy people expectations in terms of quality
of life and quality of services including transportation, healthcare,
education and public safety.
These assumptions are at the core of the intense debate around
Smart City models… how can a city become smarter in managing
its own infrastructure and resources, leading the way to sustainable
development in a far-sighted perspective?
Street lighting
is one of the domains on which many commu-
nities around the globe have started to focus. It represents a major
cost item in cities’ balance sheets, has a clear impact on liveability
and affects environmental performance. The Smart Lighting Alliance
estimates that there are about four billion street lamps in the world,
with lighting representing almost 20% of global electricity consump-
ENERGY + ENVIROFICIENCY:
FOCUS ON LIGHTING
Smart lighting
and beyond
Smart urban networks in the Internet of Things
Gianni Minetti, Paradox Engineering SA
Smart Lighting means switching to LED technologies, which would cut energy use by at least 50%. The benefits, however, could be even higher.
Electricity+Control
April ‘16
42