Techno-economic analysis of off-grid photovoltaic LED road lighting systems: A case study for northern, central and southern regions of Turkey

Street lighting is one of the sectors where off-grid energy systems are used, and in the past decade interest in these systems has increased due to recent developments occurred both in LED and PV technology. This paper presents a techno-economic analysis of off-grid PV LED road lighting systems for northern, central and southern regions of Turkey. Road lighting calculations are conducted using DIALux software for M4 and M5 road lighting classes to obtain optimal LED luminaires, pole sizes, and spacings. Among the obtained LED powers, load profiles are created using real lighting hours of operation of the selected regions. And then, the required PV-battery systems are optimized using HOMER software. Finally, sensitivity analysis is performed for future projections considering possible increases in electricity prices and decreases in component cost of the PV systems. The results showed that the levelized COE of the off-grid PV LED road lighting systems vary between 0.229 and 0.362 $/kWh for M4, and 0.254-0.359 $/kWh for M5 road lighting class, depending on the solar potential of the region. And, the total NPC of the entire lighting installation per km vary between 24296 and 29123 $ for M5, and 33225-44318 $ for M4 road lighting class. According to the results, the systems are infeasible under current conditions in Turkey. Nonetheless, they have the added benefits of contributing to the reduction of CO2 emissions. Moreover, future projections show that the systems can be feasible if the declining trend in PV system costs continues and electricity prices increase.