By Thomas Samuel
The synergy between solar, energy storage, and digital technologies is a tangible convergence we can see happening today and represents a major opportunity for sustainable cities and economies.
Specifically, this revolution will fuel a huge growth in a number of self-powered and connected objects. For solar street lighting, this exponential growth has already started. Many roads, car parks and other industrial and public spaces are being equipped every day, solving the issues of a lack of power and saving great amounts of energy while offsetting CO2 emissions.
The opportunity is global but the challenges faced by the industry include providing products, solutions and services with great reliability levels, under all climatic conditions. The needs are huge and range from rural electrification in developing countries, to solar street lights that offer additional services like WiFi, cameras, environmental sensors, or traffic management features, in the industrialised countries.
While a winner of the Prize in 2018, for Sunna Design it all started nine years ago, in India, with the founder’s vision to deliver reliable lighting to nearly 2 billion people living without electricity. In Mali, Sunna products have equipped 140 microfinance offices in the country, encouraging local people to benefit from microcredit.
In Jordan, Sunna street lights have been used to light up the Zaatari camp for Syrian refugees, allowing better security conditions, especially for women and children. In Benin, Sunna has installed more than 1,100 solar street lights for lighting up dozens of schools, health centres, mosques, churches and other public spaces.
On top of these high impact projects, Sunna has generated great energy savings in major developed markets. From high-end residential developments and shopping malls in the UAE and the US, through to cyclonic areas in Pacific Islands or Puerto Rico, these smart solutions already illuminate the lives of more than one million people, every night.
Samuel is the Chairman and President of Sunna Design
