21st Century. Street fixtures have evolved from being mere tools for a specific purpose to becoming instruments that serve both the city and the planet. In other words, streetlights have gone from being fixed points or poles within the urban public lighting network to becoming key components in the structure of a smart city that enhances energy efficiency.
Behind this key innovation for energy savings in cities lies the advancement of new technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Thanks to the integration of state-of-the-art IoT sensors, advanced connectivity, and remote management algorithms, these structures optimize public resources and redefine urban sustainability. As a result, a streetlight can also serve as a Wi-Fi hotspot, a mini weather station for collecting real-time data, or a sensor for traffic management.
From oil streetlights to AI streetlights
How did this transformation come about? Paris, 1667. The City of Light introduced the first urban lighting system in the 17th century with 2,700 oil streetlamps, installed by order of King Louis XIV to curb nighttime theft and provide safety for pedestrians. This set the precedent for public lighting in European cities, which began using gas in the 19th century before evolving into the streetlights we know today in our neighborhoods and on our avenues.
Traditionally, streetlights remained at 100% capacity throughout the night in the most densely populated urban areas, consuming excess electricity and energy, even at dawn. The paradigm shift involves a smart streetlight that reverses this trend through adaptive lighting; that is, it is capable of adjusting its brightness using real-time motion sensors.
By replacing old sodium-vapor lamps with LED technology and remote management, the system reduces its brightness to a minimum when the street is empty and activates fully only when it detects pedestrians or vehicles. According to industry reports published on the European Commission’s Smart Cities Marketplace, this combination reduces initial electricity costs by between 50% and 70%.
The Spanish Network of Smart Cities
The Spanish Network of Smart Cities (RECI) was created to promote the monitoring and remote management of public lighting as a central axis of a global strategy for urban energy efficiency.
The network enables point-to-point remote control, sensor-based lighting control, and predictive maintenance of lighting fixtures, anticipating failures or malfunctions in electrical panels so they can be repaired quickly and their performance optimized.
RECI, which is holding its next forum in Málaga on September 15–16, is monitoring the impact of these efficient technologies in more than 150 municipalities across Spain, with a major added benefit: the light poles also serve as communication nodes for other city services. Due to their height, uniform distribution, and continuous access to electrical power, streetlight poles serve as platforms for expanding cities’ digital infrastructure through the deployment of 5G and narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) networks.
One example of this is Barcelona, which implemented a SmartLighting program to ensure that 50% of its streetlights are LED by 2028. The city is working to integrate wireless lighting fixtures and automated multi-pole technologies into it street fixtures. Using streetlights for other purposes prevents cable clutter on buildings and facades and eliminates the need for trenching and construction work, which can be particularly cumbersome in historic districts.
Another example is Valencia, which has upgraded its street lighting with a smart remote management platform from Schréder that measures energy consumption in real time and reduces light pollution. Gijón has also recently completely transformed its street lighting network into a centralized multiservice infrastructure, integrating the IoT into every corner of this northern Spanish city.
A weather station on every street
Another less well-known feature of smart streetlights is their versatility to house small environmental measurement modules with sensors located at an optimum height of between three and four meters that record data such as humidity and precipitation.
They also serve as sampling points to place sensors and collect real-time data to feed the drivers' mobile navigation applications, speeding up vehicle flow and parking search to optimize the improvement of road traffic with sensors that indicate, from an app, whether the parking space is free or occupied.
In Europe, projects driven under the guidelines of the European Green Deal already encourage urban planners to use smart streetlights as operational resources for digitalization and obtaining analytical data to optimize the daily management of smart cities.
Ultimately, the transition of street lighting toward connected and automated systems marks a turning point in urban management. Smart streetlights are taking off as versatile platforms designed to optimize energy resources and serve as connection points for digital networks. Above all, they are key components and allies of smart cities in driving urban efficiency.
