Comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of streetlight technologies for minor roads in United Arab Emirates

Abstract

In this work, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method is used to investigate the environmental impacts of two recent energy efficient streetlight technologies, Ceramic Metal Halide (CMH) and Light Emitting Diode (LED), with the aim of assessing their application in Abu Dhabi — United Arab Emirates (UAE). The cradle to grave analysis for CMH and LED streetlights includes raw material extraction, production of streetlight fixture, use and end of life scenario, all modeled using the SimaPro software package. The results show that LED lights have larger environmental impact during the production stage, but this is offset during the operational life of the lamp, due to the lower energy consumption of LEDs. For both types of lamps, the production stage has significantly less overall impact when compared to the impact during their operational life. The analysis in this paper also covers a scenario where stand-alone light fixtures are powered by photovoltaic (PV) panels, with and without battery recycling, in addition to a scenario where the energy used for operation comes from a solar power plant. In all the cases analyzed, the LED lamp has a lower overall environmental impact. Furthermore, our analysis shows that most environmental impacts come from battery production, consumption of fossil fuels for energy, and transportation of parts.