Development of Intelligent solar lighting system

The intent is to develop and demonstrate an autonomous solar powered lighting solution able to fulfill lux
requirements on Danish roads 365 days a year and which can function reliably in both Danish and
international climates.
The program has been divided into 5 major areas;
1/. Energy conversion; during low light instances. The current DC/DC conversion will be improved to
increase energy production in low light instances, and provide an overall increase in energy harvesting
capabilities. This will be accomplished by optimizing charge control electronics in several areas including
enabling Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) for all PV panel surfaces. For this task a DTU patent
licensed by partner Nordic Firefly will be applied in a new non-trivial proprietary 7-port charge control
design.
2/. Energy generation; expanding the dynamic range beyond what is found in current PV panels today.
We will leverage new innovations within PV cells expanding on the dynamic range they absorb light from.
We will design, prototype and test a new PV panel. This will bring our PV panels closer to ‘full spectrum’
which is the ‘holy grail’ for PV panels. Such panels do not exist today for street lights and must be
developed from the ground up. Moreover, other innovations to expand/free the absorber area will be
leveraged and a proprietary electrical conductor design will also be developed, connected over/under the
cells, to further enhance energy harvesting capabilities.
3/. Energy storage; both reliable and efficient electric energy storage is necessary to compensate for the
gaps between incident sunlight and required power as well as to withstand rough environmental conditions.
The latest battery and capacitor technologies will be opposed to each other and evaluated for possible
hybridization. Project partner Nerve Smart Systems will develop a tailored management system for the
electric energy storage system, based on its patented, newly developed Nerve Switch, which allows for
extended efficiency/lifetime, and increased flexibility to adapt to charge control MPPT’s.
4/. Light delivery; in accordance with lux-requirements (super optimized LED luminaire and optics).
A new modular luminaire will be developed with leading LED chips/optics. The optics platform will be
swappable enabling different light profiles. Further, new PCB design innovations will be applied. The target
is to create a luminaire, with more than 220 lux per watt output, which does not exist today.
5/. Monitoring and intelligence; providing the right light at the right time while conserving energy.
We will develop a monitoring platform with sensors (hardware) and also implement machine learning
(software) by creating intelligent algorithms capable of identifying humans (cars, cycles, pedestrians vs.
animal etc.) and only dim the lights up/down when human objects pas by the lamp.