See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/224188935

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

Conference Paper · October 2010

DOI: 10.1109/CITRES.2010.5619814 · Source: IEEE Xplore

CITATIONS READS
11 753

3 authors, including:

Solo Nunoo Joseph Attachie

University of Mines and Technology University of Mines and Technology
42 PUBLICATIONS   170 CITATIONS    12 PUBLICATIONS   34 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Exploiting interference in 5G communication systems View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Solo Nunoo on 01 January 2015.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Using Solar Power as an Alternative Source
of Electrical Energy for Street Lighting in
Ghana
1
Solomon Nunoo, 2Joseph C. Attachie and 3Charles K. Abraham
1,2
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, Ghana
3
Electricity Company of Ghana, Tarkwa District, Western Region, Ghana
1
snunoo@umat.edu.gh, 2jcattachie@umat.edu.gh, 3abrahamcharleskwamena@gmail.com

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.
1. INTRODUCTION
In Ghana, electricity consumption has been increasing at a
rate of 10-15 percent per annum for the last two decades. It
is projected that the average demand growth over the next
decade will be about six percent per year. As a result,
frequent blackouts have occurred and could continue as
energy demand increases and energy generation fails to
keep up [1].
The issue of street lighting is almost non-existing in many
localities in Ghana. The few existing ones use discharge
lamps which come with their own disadvantages such as;
high power consumption, low efficiencies, very fragile and
low rated life (hours). One major environmental concern is
their contribution to global warming, because of their
associated greenhouse gas emissions when in operation.
Besides, most of these streetlights are unmetered because
they are mostly installed without authorization from the
service providers.
Hence, to overcome and improve the problem of street
lighting in Ghana, there is the need to explore the use of
alternative lamps and alternative sources of electrical power
for lighting them. One of such lamps and energy source is
the light emitting diode (LED) lamp and solar energy
respectively.
This paper presents the various benefits that LED lamps
have to offer instead of the existing discharge lamps used
for street lighting in Ghana and using solar energy as the
source of electrical power. Cost-benefit analysis to ascertain
the viability of implementing such a project is also
discussed.
2. OVERVIEW OF STREET LIGHTING
Types of Street Lighting Lamps
Street lighting is the artificial illumination of streets and
pathways when available natural light (sunlight) drops
below a predetermined level. It dates back to pre-electricity
era when oil lamps were used to provide illumination for
pathways at night as well as providing security. Some
benefits of street lighting are; it allows the safe movement
of motorists or pedestrians; it enhances the amenity of an
area; and it assists with property protection by acting as a
deterrent to criminals.
There are several types of lamps used for street lighting
depending on their photopic illumination for the least
consumption of electricity [2]. Such lamps include
incandescent, fluorescent, high intensity discharge and LED
lamps.
Incandescent Lamps
Incandescent lamps are among the first and least efficient
light sources used in street lighting. Incandescent lighting
was a popular option for street lighting until the 1950s,
when other lamps proved to be more efficient and lower
maintenance.
Fluorescent Lamps
Fluorescent lamps gained popularity for street lighting
applications in the 1950s. These lamps were more efficient
than their incandescent counterparts were, and required less
maintenance. The lamps were primarily used in downtown

978-1-4244-6077-9/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE 467

areas and parking lots. They were good for any place
requiring a lot of light over a large area. The popularity of
these lamps was relatively short lived, as more efficient,
compact and lower maintenance high intensity discharge
lamp technology was advanced.
High Intensity Discharge Lamps
High Intensity Discharge (HID) lamps in general require an
external ballast to operate. These lamps usually take
between 1 and 5 minutes to reach full brightness, and if
there is a dip in electricity, these lamps will shut off. The
lamps must cool sufficiently to restrike, which usually takes
from 1 to 10 minutes.
Streetlights using these lamps have been labeled on the
bottom of the fixture since the late 1970s. A number on the
bottom multiplied by 10 yields the wattage rating of the
fixture. For example, “10” means 100 watts, and “25”
means 250 W.
The only exception is 1000-W fixtures, which are labeled as
“X1”. Mercury vapor lamp has a blue label, metal halide has
a red label and both types of sodium lamps have yellow or
gold labels. There are three main types of high intensity
discharge lamps namely, mercury vapor lamp, metal halide
lamp, and high pressure sodium lamp.
LED Lamps
Today, because of the advancement in technological
research LED lamps for street lighting are available. Even
though, the technology is in its early years of streetlights
application compared to the traditional streetlights, and it
promises great deal of success in this 21st century street
lighting technology.
LEDs are semiconductor devices that convert electricity to
light. LED lighting is also called solid-state lighting,
because the light is emitted from a semiconductor material
rather than from a vacuum or gas tube. LED technology has
existed since the 1960s. The early LED technology
application was for indicator lights, which had efficacy of
only 0.01 lumen/watt.
Recently, LEDs are used in multitude of applications and
are available in several colors and packages. LEDs for street
lighting applications package a number of LED chips onto a
coated printed circuit board and enclose them in housing
suitable for the outdoor environment.
Current State of Street Lighting in Ghana
The street lighting system employed in Ghana is the cobra-
head type, which employs the use of mercury vapor lamps
for its illumination. The operating voltage is 240V and
typical lamps used have wattages ranging from 120W to
400W but the 250W mercury lamps are mostly used as is
the case in the Western Region (see Table 1). Hence, the
issue of high power consumption with lumen depreciation
associated with mercury vapor lamps poses a challenge in
trying to conserve electrical power.
Under the tariff system of Ghana, streetlights are
categorized as non-residential facilities so the Public
Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) approved tariff
rates for a non-residential user, effective June 1, 2010, is
used to calculate the cost of energy consumed per hour. The
total power consumed per month in Table 1 was calculated
with the assumption that streetlights are used for 12 hours
each day for 30 days every month and there is one energy
meter per district.
The total monthly charges (TMC) is calculated using the
relation,
TMC = (U × kWh) + (L × kWh) + Tax + SC (1)
where U is unit charge based on PURC approved tariff rates,
kWh is the total power consumed per month, L is the
applicable levies which is made up of government levy and
streetlight levy, Tax is the applicable tax for non-residential
consumers and it comprises of VAT and National Health

Table 1 – Number of Unmetered Street Lamps in the Western Region of Ghana

Number of Lamps Total Power Total Power Total Monthly
District 120-W 150-W 250-W 400-W Per Hour Per Month Charges
Lamp Lamp Lamp Lamp (kWh) (kWh) (GH¢)
Juaboso - - - 729 291.60 104976.00 54,238.70
Enchi 105 - 74 20 39.10 14076.00 7,170.68
Bibiani - - 34 75 38.50 13860.00 7,058.83
Takoradi - - 870 - 217.50 78300.00 40,425.87
Bogoso - 79 13 91 51.50 18540.00 9,482.14
Setwi Wiaso - - 42 113 55.70 20052.00 10,265.05
Axim - 150 84 56 65.90 23724.00 12,166.41
Sekondi 2 - 696 360 318.24 114566.40 59,204.61
Asankraguah - - - - - - -
Agona Nkwanta - - 7 393 158.95 57222.00 29,511.68
Tarkwa - - 430 74 137.10 49356.00 25,438.66
Half Assin - 209 354 17 126.65 45594.00 23,490.70
Total 107 438 2604 1928 1500.74 540266.40 278,453.32

468
Insurance Levy (NHIL) at a combined rate of 15 percent
and SC is the service charge at a rate of GH¢2.50 per month.
To pay for the energy consumed, residential consumers on
the national grid are levied 0.0001 of their total monthly
consumption. Unfortunately, most of the streetlights are
unmetered so the service provider is unable to charge the
respective district assemblies for the usage.
3. PERFORMANCE OF LED LAMPS
Lamp performance is measured by a variety of metrics, but
the most significant metric is lamp efficacy (lumens
generated per watt of energy consumed). Table 2 [3] shows
the performance of LED lamp against high-pressure sodium
and mercury vapor lamp.
electricity. Energy is stored in the battery during daytime
and consumed at night. The LED lamp (LED streetlight) is
driven to operate by the LED lamp driver – this controller
monitors the system and manages the light on and light-off
in day and night time.
The solar LED streetlight controller not only controls solar
energy storage to the battery, but it also manages the power
consumption to the LED lamp.
There are installations that can effectively radiate 85% of
light output from the LED lamps to hit the road surface [4].
Figure 2 [5] show a typical solar street lighting system.

Table 2 – Performance of Various Types of Lamps for Street Lighting

Type of Lamp
Parameters
LED Lamp High Pressure Sodium Lamp Mercury Vapor Lamp
Flux (lm) 3,325 5,510 4,340
Power Consumption (W) 67 90 138
System Efficacy (lm/W) 50 61 31
Average Lux 14 19 14
Utilization Factor 0.0042 0.0034 0.0032
Lux/W 0.21 0.21 0.10
Min/Avg Lux Ratio 0.40 0.32 0.23
Lifetime (hours) 60,000 20,000 – 30,000 6,000 – 10,000

4. DESIGN OF LED-BASED STREETLIGHT

The solar LED streetlight described in this paper is designed
to achieve an 85W solar energy battery charger and a 25 W
LED lamp driver. During the daytime the controller
preserves the electricity energy gathered by the solar
module (PV module), then stores it in the battery. In the
evening, the controller uses the battery energy to power the
LED streetlight.

Figure 2 – A Typical Solar Street Lighting System

Streetlight Control System

Figure 1 – Block Diagram of Solar LED Streetlight System
The system block diagram is illustrated in Figure 1. The
sunlight delivers rays of photons (solar energy) which hit
the solar panel (photovoltaic or PV module). The PV
absorbs the photons and electrons are released. The
electrons flow along the metal contact of the PV and form
A simplified block diagram of the solar-LED streetlight
controller is shown in Figure 3. It consists of the power
supply, battery charger, LED lamp driver, and protection
circuits.
The power supply is from the battery and it is regulated to
12 V DC. The battery charger is a DC/DC converter using
buck topology. It converts solar energy to electricity and

469
stores the electricity in the battery. The LED lamp driver is
also a DC/DC converter using flyback topology in order to
drive the LED lamp and provide even illumination. Again,
the system must have overvoltage, under voltage and over
current protection circuits and reverse-connection protection
for the battery and the LED lamp.
Figure 3 – Simplified System Block Diagram of the Solar-
powered LED Streetlight Controller
In sophisticated architectures, a microcontroller unit
(MCU), which includes human machine interfaces (HMI),
DIP switch for the selection of the operating time schedule
and the indicators of debugging status, is incorporated. The
software routines for the protection circuit are then
implemented in the MCU.
Economic Analysis of the Proposed System
There are 5077 unmetered streetlights in the Western
Region of Ghana [6] as shown in Table 1 and several others
in the remaining nine regions. Thus, Electricity Company of
Ghana (ECG) losses GH¢3,341,439.84 (US$2,353,126.65)
annually in Western Region only?
The analysis presented in this paper considers a solar-
powered streetlight system using high-power LED lamp
(100 W) for 10 km of single lane highway because most
highways in Ghana are single lane. The fixtures are installed
on one side of the road with a pole distance of 30 m
(amounting to 335 fixtures).
Table 3 shows an economic comparison of solar-powered
LED streetlight and grid-powered mercury vapor lamp
streetlight. Each unit of the solar-powered lighting system
includes a 100 Wp PV module, a 100 Ah-12 V battery, and
100W LED lighting fixture. It shows that the total initial
installation cost is GH¢1,423,750.00 (US$1,002,640.85)
and that of the grid-powered mercury lamp streetlight is
GH¢969,485.00 (US$682,735.92).
The maintenance cost for a solar-powered LED streetlight
system over a 20-year period is also shown in Table 4. The
payback period for the excess investment of LED street
470
lighting system is 2.44 years. This result shows the solar-
powered LED streetlight is economically feasible.
5. CONCLUSIONS
Streetlights in Ghana receive electrical energy from the
national grid and residential consumers are levied 0.0001 of
their monthly consumption. Most of the streetlights use 250
W mercury vapor lamp but this paper suggests the use of
solar-powered LED streetlight due to its numerous
advantages.
The use of LED technology can help relieve the
government’s ever-present budgetary and environmental
challenges as well as improve streetlight quality through
features like reduced glare and better color rendering.
The findings of this research show that, the total initial
installation cost of a solar-powered LED streetlight is
GH¢1,423,750.00 (US$1,002,640.85) and that of the grid-
powered mercury lamp streetlight is GH¢969,485.00
(US$682,735.92). The payback period for LED system is
2.44 years and the lifetime maintenance savings given that
the system has a 20-year lifespan is GH¢2,350,037.00
(US$1,654,955.63). Hence it is economically feasible.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The writers will like to acknowledge the help of Eco-Solar
and Construction Limited for availing data on costs related
to solar-powered street lighting installation in Ghana.
REFERENCES
[1] J. A. Aboagye, “An Alternative Street Lighting for UMaT
Campus using LED (Light Emitting Diode) Lamps”, BSc
Project Work, University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa,
May 2010.
[2] Anon., “Types of Lamps Used in Streetlights”, retrieved
on February 10, 2010 from http://www.eskimo.com/~jrterry/
lamps.html.
[3] Philips, “White Paper: Street Lighting”, retrieved on July
6, 2010 from http://www.philipslumileds.com/pdfs/WP14
.pdf.
[4] M. S. Wu, H. H. Huang, B. J. Huang, C. W. Tang and C.
W. Cheng, “Economic Feasibility of Solar-powered LED
Roadway Lighting,” ISESCO Science and Technology Vision,
Volume 4, Number 6, 43-47, November 2008.
[5] Energy Efficiency, “Activity: Is Solar Energy Suitable for
Hong Kong?”, retrieved on March 31, 2010 from
http://www.hk-hy.org/energy/alternate/act_solar_cell_e.html.
 [6] Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), “Unmetered Street
Lighting Report”, Western Region, Ghana, 2010.

Table 3 – Initial Installation Cost for Solar-powered LED Streetlight System

Solar-Powered LED Lamp Mercury Vapor Lamp
Streetlight Streetlight
ITEM
UNIT PRICE SUBTOTAL UNIT PRICE SUBTOTAL
(GH¢) (GH¢) (GH¢) (GH¢)
Lamp 1,000.00 335,000.00 10.00 3,350.00
Lamp Pole 300.00 100,500.00 300.00 100,500.00
Solar PV Module 800.00 268,000.00 - -
Deep Cycle Battery 400.00 134,000.00 - -
Controller 500.00 167,500.00 - -
Power Line Cost - 100,000.00 - 400,000.00
PVC Pipe Cost - 30,000.00 - 150,000.00
Transformer Station Cost - - - 60,000.00
Civil Construction and
500.00 167,500.00 500.00 167,500.00
Installation
Subtotal (GH¢) - 1,302,500.00 - 881,350.00
Miscellaneous (10%) - 130,250.00 - 88,135.00
Total Initial Installation Cost (GH¢) 1,423,750.00 969,485.00

Table 4 – Maintenance Cost for Solar-powered LED Streetlight System Over a 20-year Period
Solar-Powered LED Lamp Mercury Vapor Lamp
ITEM
Streetlight Streetlight
Lighting power per lamp (W) 100 250
Total power consumed per hour (kWh) 33.5 83.75
Initial Installation Cost (GH¢) 1,423,750.00 969,485.00
Maintenance and Item Replacement Times
Lamp Replacement Time (years) 10 2
Deep Cycle Battery (years) 6 -
Controller (years) 5 -
Solar PV Module (years) 20 -
Lifetime Lamp Replacement Cost (GH¢) 335,000.00 33,500.00
Lifetime Battery Replacement Cost (GH¢) 402,000.00 -
Lifetime Controller Replacement Cost (GH¢) 502,500.00 -
Lifetime Total Maintenance Cost (GH¢) 1,368,475.00 33,500.00
Overall Savings
Power Savings per day (kWh) 603 -
Monthly Energy Charges (GH¢) - 15,493.80
Yearly Total Energy Savings (kWh/year) 217080 -
Yearly Total Energy Savings (GH¢/year) 185,925.60 -
Lifetime Energy Savings (GH¢) 3,718,512.00 -
Lifetime Maintenance Savings (GH¢/year) 2,350,037.00 -
Additional Investment for LED (GH¢) 454,265.00 -
Payback Period (years) 2.44 -

471

View publication stats