Solar Street Lights
How to Choose the Right Solar Street Light Wattage for Your Road
12 January 2026 · 7 min read
Wattage alone never decides how well a solar street light performs. The right choice comes from three linked numbers — road width, pole height and required lux — and then a battery sized for your worst monsoon week. Here is how we specify systems for Indian sites.
Start from road width, not from watts
A light is only as useful as the spread it delivers at ground level. Narrow internal lanes of 3–4 m need far less output than a 7 m two-lane approach road, even though both are often quoted with the same fixture.
As a working rule for Indian roads, keep pole height roughly equal to road width, and pole spacing at three to four times pole height.
- 3–4 m lane, 4 m pole, 12–15 m spacing — 12W to 20W LED
- 5–6 m colony road, 6 m pole, 18–22 m spacing — 24W to 40W LED
- 7 m two-lane road, 7–8 m pole, 25–30 m spacing — 50W to 80W LED
- Highway service road or yard, 9 m pole — 100W and above, or twin-arm fixtures
Size the battery for autonomy, not for the brochure
The panel and battery matter more than the LED. A 40W fixture running 12 hours consumes roughly 480Wh per night. With a 12.8V lithium pack, that is about 38Ah of usable energy for a single night, and you want two nights of autonomy for cloudy monsoon spells.
Lithium ferro-phosphate packs are now standard on our systems because they tolerate Indian summer temperatures and deliver 2,000+ cycles, against 400–500 for tubular lead acid.
- Panel Wp should be roughly 2.5x to 3x the LED wattage
- Aim for a minimum of two nights of autonomy
- Insist on IP66 luminaire and IP65 battery enclosure for dust and rain
Dimming profiles stretch your backup
Most municipal roads do not need full output all night. A profile that runs 100% until 11 pm, 50% until 4 am and 100% until dawn cuts consumption by nearly a third without any perceived loss of safety, and lets you use a smaller battery for the same reliability.
Frequently asked questions
Is a 40W solar street light enough for a village road?
For a 5–6 m wide village road on a 6 m pole with 18–22 m spacing, a 40W all-in-one solar street light with a 60Ah lithium battery gives comfortable, uniform light through the night.
How many hours should a solar street light run?
Specify dusk-to-dawn operation — typically 11 to 12 hours — with two nights of autonomy so the light still works after a cloudy day.
What pole height is best for solar street lights?
Match pole height to road width. Four metres for lanes, six metres for colony roads, seven to nine metres for two-lane and highway service roads.
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