By Vvon Engineering Team | Published | Updated
Specify maintained lighting, seasonal charging, battery duty, pole foundations and maintenance responsibilities before buying solar street lights.
Solar EPC & street lighting RFQ checklist (TXT)
A solar lighting scheme should be judged by maintained illumination and service availability. Battery duty, weather, foundations, replacement access and a funded maintenance owner all need to be specified before purchase.
Standalone solar lighting can avoid a grid extension where the site suits it. Compare its lifetime cost and maintenance needs with a wired lighting scheme rather than assuming no electricity bill means no ongoing cost.
The first decision is whether each pole is its own power plant. In a standalone scheme, every pole carries a module, a battery, a controller and a luminaire. In a centralised scheme, one array and one battery bank at a single point feed conventional LED luminaires over an LV distribution cable, exactly as a grid-fed street lighting circuit would.
Compare standalone poles with a central supply using cable distance, access, failure consequences, battery location and maintenance logistics. Neither topology is inherently longer-lived.
| Arrangement | Compare in the quotation |
|---|---|
| All-in-one | Thermal management, replaceable components, panel orientation and photometric output. |
| Split components | Cable protection, battery location and access. |
| Networked controls | Monitoring coverage, communications cost, dimming limits and ownership. |
| High mast | Wind/foundation design, maintained lighting, access and energy budget. |
Compare exact battery models at the intended temperature, discharge depth and daily duty. Chemistry alone does not establish cycle life, replacement interval or safety.
Choose a battery location that meets temperature, ingress, flood, security and service requirements. The pole head, base and a separate cabinet have different risks; obtain evidence for the complete assembly.
Specify lighting hours, permitted dimming and the required service reliability. Model charging and autonomy for seasonal weather and degraded battery capacity. Dimming must still meet the road or site's lighting requirement.
Lighting quality is specified at the road surface, not at the fixture. Ask for average maintained illuminance and uniformity across the carriageway, and for a photometric layout using the actual luminaire file at the actual mounting height and spacing. A row of bright pools with dark gaps between them is a failed design even when every individual light is working, and it is what you get when spacing is decided by where the poles were convenient rather than by the optic.
Include the panel, luminaire and attachments in wind and foundation calculations for the actual site. A generic 120 km/h product claim is not a Bangladesh coastal design criterion.
Two site conditions matter more here than anywhere else. Soft delta soil has low bearing capacity, and it drops further when the monsoon saturates it, so a standard footing drawing copied from another project is not a design. Coastal salt attacks the galvanising, the base plate and the fasteners, so specify the coating and use stainless or well protected fixings on the coast. Also check the module tilt frame: a module clamped flat against a bracket that was cut on site is the joint that opens first.
For public road or municipal work, confirm the procuring entity's current specification and procurement rules. For a solar street light proposal, request exact component models, control settings and a complete installation scope.
In an e-GP tender the specification is the only defence a public buyer has against the cheapest compliant offer. Put the things that decide year-four survival into it explicitly: battery datasheet with cycle life at a stated depth of discharge and temperature, IP ratings backed by test reports rather than claims, a photometric layout for the actual pole spacing, a foundation design signed against the site soil, a named in-country party responsible for warranty service, a defined spares holding handed over with the works, and a maintenance contract priced as a separate BoQ item so it is visible and does not quietly disappear during evaluation.
Consult the relevant edition and the documents for the exact equipment and site: US Department of Energy: battery energy storage procurement checklist; IEA PVPS: operation and maintenance in different climates; IEA PVPS: operational and economic impacts of extreme weather; BPPA: current Public Procurement Rules.
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