Renewable Energy & Advanced Lighting Systems for Exterior Applications
Regents of the University of California, Davis
Recipient
Davis, CA
Recipient Location
3rd
Senate District
4th
Assembly District
$1,810,333
Amount Spent
Active
Project Status
Project Update
By the end of the 2025, all demonstration sites were fully retrofitted with REAL systems. Site selection and baseline assessments were completed at all eight locations, including verification of existing lighting technologies, operating schedules, and applicable utility rate structures. Engineering design, permitting, installation, and commissioning were successfully completed at the San Joaquin and West Sacramento sites, which had been pending in the prior year. With all systems operational, the project transitioned from installation to full performance monitoring, data analysis, and community engagement, enabling comprehensive evaluation of energy, emissions, grid interaction, and community outcomes across all demonstration sites.
The Issue
The vast majority of street, parking and exterior lights in CA are grid connected and operated in an ON / OFF function using photocells/ time clock combination and do not offer an alternate source of power in case of emergency such as PSPS events, and do not offer load shifting to help with the evening ramp. With the electrification of energy use in CA, electric vehicles may likely be adding significant load overnight during the same hours that exterior lights are operating. Since there is little renewable energy available at night, it is imperative that all nighttime load be decreased as much as possible or shifted to periods of high renewable availability.
Project Innovation
This project will design, develop, and demonstrate a variety of hybrid power (solar, battery and grid-tied) exterior LED luminaire systems with embedded sensors and controls. Demonstration of this system intends to improve safety in streets, parking lots, and parks located in at least seven disadvantaged and low-income communities. The project aims to benefit California rate payers via lower energy cost, reliable hybrid exterior LED luminaires with significant reduction in nighttime grid energy use.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
This Agreement may result in ratepayer benefits through developing a product that can remove a large portion of the exterior area lighting load from the grid. This may be especially useful during peak hours (5-9 pm) during winter, early spring and late fall. This should help utilities lower costs on overnight generation, a period of little to no renewable energy. If this technology is deployed for all outdoor lighting in CA, an estimated 4,000 GWh of electricity could be offset per year which equates to 132,000 tons of CO2 emission reduction.
Safety
A hybrid exterior luminaire powered by both the utility grid and the integrated batteries will provide added safety and security during fires or emergency shut off events such as PG&E's PSPS program.
Key Project Members
Michael Siminovitch
Abhijeet Pande
Josh Dean
Andrew Harper
Subrecipients
TRC Engineers, Inc.
Match Partners
ICF International
Regents of the University of California, Davis - California Lighting Technology Center
CSU Dominguez Hills
DesignLights Consortium
City of West Sacramento
The Bit Bazaar, LLC
LED Green Light International
Sixteen Five Hundred
