City of Los Angeles Approves Next-Generation Solar Street Lighting Spec From Fonroche Lighting America

City of Los Angeles Approves Next-Generation Solar Street Lighting Spec From Fonroche Lighting America

• The City Opts in for NiMH Battery Technology and LoRa Capability

Woburn, Massachusetts, February 9, 2022

Fonroche Lighting America is pleased to announce that the City of Los Angeles Street Lighting Testing and Evaluation Program has approved Fonroche’s SmartLight specification for solar street lighting. This has special significance because of the city’s scale and influence in outdoor lighting. Few towns and cities can support an in-house evaluation and testing program of their own, so many look to cities like the City of Los Angeles for leadership, rigorous evaluation, and best practices.

The City of Los Angeles made lighting history as an early mover in LED retrofits. The City of Los Angeles made over 140,000 LED retrofits between 2009 and 2013, with energy savings of $10 million per year.

At the same time, they approved two solar lighting specifications using AGM technology.

The recent approval of Fonroche Lighting America’s new solar lighting specification addresses the challenges of early solar lighting systems. AGM-based systems have a much shorter battery life than Fonroche’s NiMH battery systems.  Older systems delivered, at most five years of battery life. The Fonroche SmartLight delivers a battery life of 10—12 years. The system also addresses battery theft and vandalism with its unique mounting assembly. Further, SmartLights are LoRa-enabled for wireless communications.

The city uses solar street lighting to save money by avoiding trenching and wiring costs. It also eliminates the threat of copper wire theft. In 2021, copper-wire theft cost the City of Los Angeles $3.9 million and left communities in the dark until the city could make repairs.

Hocine Benaoum, CEO, commented, “Fonroche Lighting America has installed over 150,000 SmartLight solar lighting systems worldwide. We look forward to working with the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Lighting to make similar inroads in Los Angeles and the rest of the United States.”