A Comparative Study of Solar Street Lighting System in Different Lamps

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative study of solar street lighting system in three different lamps. Namely, a fluorescent lamp (36 W), a low pressure sodium lamp (18 W) and a high pressure sodium lamp (50 W) have been used for installation in each mast to deter mine the appropriate system to install in a rural area of Thailand. All three systems have been mounted with the same module type and wattage at the Rajamangala Institute of Technology (main campus), Thanyaburi district, Pathumthani province of Thailand. The design of a control circuit was experimentally done in this work. Protection of the battery from damage from deep discharge and overcharge by a controller was also considered. The batteries, which have a low self-discharge and maintenance free, have been situated inside the water proof battery boxes including measuring meters to show the values of current and voltage that to be generated from the solar modules. An operation of solar street lighting system can be divided into 2 period of time, namely, at 18.00-22.00 hours and 05.00- 06.00 hours. The life cycle cost analysis is the appropriate method for comparing three different lamps. The present worth of each system can be compared and the least cost option selected. A LCC analysis is based on the key assumptions (year 2002). The costs of installation and operation and maintenance were estimated by multiplying the capital cost of PV arrays with 0.2 (20%) and 0.02 (2%) respectively. The results of comparative study the solar street lighting system with a fluorescent lamp has been the appropriate system for installation in a rural area of Thai land when the cost of lamps, system performance and possibility for purchasing the components of the system have been considered. The results of this study are able to provide useful information for rural electrification planners and PV engineers to choose the optimum system for installation in a particular rural village of Thailand. They should be applicable in other countries that are situated the same latitude angle with a similar climate.