Jan 16 2019
The Smart Off-Grid™ company, Clear Blue Technologies International, has announced that 40 of its Illumient solar-powered street lights have been set up in Toronto’s Bloor Street West.
Bloor Street West (image credit: Clear Blue Technologies)
The smart city lighting systems will include banners promoting Bloor West Village, and will also host Wi-Fi for the area. The Bloor West Village Business Improvement Association (BIA), the first BIA to be established in the globe, has supported the project.
To Clear Blue Technologies, the project value surpassed $400,000 CAD and includes its on-going management services, using its Illumience cloud software.
Ontario is an emerging domestic market for Clear Blue Technologies. In fact, compared to 2017, the company’s revenue from sales in the province was 515% higher in 2018. In Ontario, 18 municipalities have installed the company’s Illumient lighting systems for a wide range of applications such as parks, residential streets, downtown areas, roadways, and signage, at more than 40 different locations. On the whole, it is expected that the global solar street lighting market will reach $17.78 billion (USD) in revenue by 2024, a 23.23% CAGR from 2016 to 2024.
We are excited to collaborate with Clear Blue for this project, marking another step forward for our BIA which will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year. Clear Blue’s Smart Off-Grid lighting systems are far superior to the standard solar lighting that was in place beforehand, and are a highly reliable, cost-effective solution for our community. In addition to their technical excellence, we found the team at Clear Blue to be highly collaborative and supportive throughout the process and we are pleased with the end result.
David Howitt, Chairman, Bloor West Village BIA.
Bloor Street West runs through a shopping district, Bloor West Village, in Toronto’s high-end residential neighborhood that is home to over 400 businesses. However, in spite of its location on one of Toronto’s busiest streets, access to grid power is very costly. Hence, it was important that the lights were integrated with an off-grid solution that has the ability to power this crucial infrastructure. The latest sidewalk lighting will emphasize restaurants and businesses to entice more numbers of pedestrians in the evenings and improve security and safety. For tracking activity in various areas throughout the night, the motion sensors and analytics will be utilized.
As a Toronto-based company, we are pleased that our Smart Off-Grid lights were selected to light this thriving area of the city. This is part of a much wider transition toward Smart Off-Grid as a way to power critical urban infrastructure in mature markets, especially where it is too expensive or disruptive to connect to the electric grid.
Miriam Tuerk, CEO and Co-Founder, Clear Blue Technologies International.
Smart off-grid lighting is part of an emerging trend by cities shifting toward Smart City infrastructure. Apart from lighting, the systems are capable of powering a wide range of Internet of Things devices like sensors, WiFi hotspots, security cameras, and so no.
Before installing the Illumient street lights from Clear Blue Technologies, Bloor Street West was lighted up with solar lighting which did not have smart off-grid technology. This led to costly maintenance and considerable downtime. Integrated with built-in communications, the newly-installed Illumient systems enable the lights to be remotely controlled and operated, thus reducing maintenance costs while providing high reliability. In addition, the motion sensors on the lighting poles, together with Illumience’s predictive weather analysis capabilities, will conserve battery power and make sure that the area remains illuminated in all seasons of the year.
The project was jointly funded by the BIA and the City of Toronto. The City of Toronto is accountable for the sidewalks and wished to remove the various dark spots that restricted visibility at night.