With an off-grid solar system: solar panels charge a battery by day, and the battery runs the lights, signs and cameras at night. Off-grid public lighting is sized on the longest winter nights. A new grid connection only wins when the cable is short and the ground is easy to open.
A cycle bridge, a path along the water or a camera mast, and the nearest connection is hundreds of metres away? Then comes a trench, a meter cabinet, a grid operator request and a wait, for a few lamps.
The cycle bridge between Waregem and Wielsbeke was very far from its first connection. Its lighting for shipping and street lighting run on one off-grid system with additional solar panels.
What are the options for off-grid public lighting and cameras without a grid connection?
There are four realistic routes. Which one fits depends on the distance to the grid, the number of loads and how critical they are.
What makes it expensive is not the power, it is the distance. A trench along a dike, under a cycle path or across a road costs time, permits and money. After that you pay the fixed charges of a connection every year for a small load.
| Route | How it works | Fits when | Watch out |
|---|---|---|---|
| New grid connection | A cable and a meter from the nearest point of the grid | The grid is close and the ground is easy to open | Long trenches are slow and expensive; fixed charges every year for a small load |
| All-in-one solar lamps | Each lamp post has its own small panel, battery and controller | A few separate path lamps with no other loads | Each lamp is on its own in December; no shared reserve; hard to add a camera or a sign |
| One central off-grid system | A field of panels, one battery and one inverter feed all lights, signs and cameras on the site | Several loads close together, or loads that must never go dark | Needs a design and a place for the battery; the cables run from one point |
| Generator | A generator runs whenever power is needed | Temporary works, or as back-up only | Not for lights that burn every night: fuel, noise, maintenance, theft |
A light for shipping or a camera for security may not simply go off on the longest night of the year. Wondering what a long cable costs compared with a battery? Our article on grid extension costs versus a battery works it out.
Is it a building that has no connection, rather than lamps and cameras? Then read what to do when a new building has no grid connection.
Planning lighting or cameras far from the grid? Let us look at your site together.
Solar street lights or one central off-grid system: which fits?
Autonomous solar street lights are fine for a single lamp on a quiet path. Do several lights, a sign and a camera share one site? Then one central off-grid system is easier to size, to follow and to keep running.
All-in-one solar lamps
- One lamp, one small panel on the mast
- No cable between the lamps
- Each lamp has its own reserve, and its own weak point
- Adding a camera or a lit sign means another separate unit
One central off-grid system
- One panel field and one battery for everything
- Normal 230 V for standard LED fittings, signs and cameras
- One shared reserve for the longest nights
- Followed remotely, with an alert when the battery runs low
How a central off-grid system powers a bridge or a path
Which parts such a system needs, from panels to inverter and battery, is explained in our guide to the components of an off-grid system.
Do solar-powered lights work in a Belgian winter?
Yes, if they are sized for December. That is the month when the lights burn longest and the panels produce least. A system designed on summer figures goes dark in the first long, grey week.
When public lighting runs on the battery (Waregem area)
Around the shortest day it is dark for about 16 hours, in June for less than 8. So the lights need about twice as much energy per night in winter, while the sun gives much less.
Solar yield of 1 kWp of panels in a month (East Flanders)
Twice the need and a quarter of the yield: that is the winter gap a system for public lighting has to close. In the PVGIS data for 2014 to 2023, 43% of December days gave less than 0.5 kWh per kWp. The battery has to bridge a run of such days.
That is why a central system usually gets more panel power and battery reserve than a summer calculation suggests. LED helps: ORES expects the switch to LED to cut the lighting use of an average Walloon commune by about 70%. Fewer watts per lamp means a smaller system for the same lights.
Tip
Ask your installer for the December figures, not only the yearly total. A design that only shows annual kWh says nothing about the longest nights.
Can you power CCTV cameras and signs without a grid connection, day and night?
Yes, with solar panels and a battery. A camera, a router and signage without mains power are small but constant loads: they run 24 hours a day, in the dark too. So they weigh on the battery as much as the lights.
A single battery camera with a small panel works for one spot that is checked now and then. When several cameras, a 4G router and lighting share one mast or site, one system with one reserve is more reliable. Separate batteries each run out on their own schedule.
The same goes for a site that is only visited now and then. A generator that runs only when someone is there gives no power in between, so the cameras go dark exactly when nobody is around. A solar-powered CCTV system with a battery keeps them running in the empty weeks too.
More on sites that are busy only part of the time is in our article on power for weekend and seasonal sites.
Not sure how big your system should be?
Tell us which lights, signs and cameras have to run, and how many hours. We calculate the panels and the battery on December, not on June.
How do you keep an eye on an off-grid system nobody visits?
Remotely. You follow the system from your desk and get a warning before the battery runs low. That matters on a bridge or a path where nobody checks the lamps every evening.
- Real-time monitoring. In the app and the Victron VRM portal you see the battery charge, the solar production and the use.
- An alert for a low battery. You can set a notification for a low battery level.
- History per minute, hour or day. You can look back at what the system did on a given night.
- An optional generator as back-up. Where a site cannot risk a dark spell, a generator can be added. It starts and stops on its own on the battery level.
Want to see how a generator fits in as back-up only? Our article on a generator with a battery explains the automatic start and stop. What the monitoring shows is on our software page.
Who is responsible for public lighting, and which rules apply?
In Flanders, public lighting belongs to the city or municipality. Fluvius installs, maintains, repairs and replaces the lamps, and manages more than 1.2 million light points.
That lighting covers roads, paths, squares, bridges, tunnels and waterways managed by a city, a municipality or an autonomous municipal company. Does your municipality put the work out to tender? Read how a public body buys a battery or off-grid system.
- In Wallonia, ORES maintains and operates about 460,000 light points for the communes. They are to be fitted with LED by 2030.
- In Flanders, Fluvius aims to equip the public lighting it manages with LED by the end of 2028.
- Island mode (Flanders). An installation that runs on its own, without the grid, with an inverter of 800 VA or more, is notified to the Vlaamse Nutsregulator.
- AREI inspection. The Belgian electrical code (AREI) applies with or without a grid. An accredited body inspects a new installation before it is put into use.
- Lighting for shipping and roads. The waterway or road manager sets the requirements for signals on its infrastructure. Agree them before the design: they decide which lights must never go out.
Watch out
This is general information, not legal advice. For a private site, such as a company car park or a gate, you are the owner and the manager yourself. In Brussels, ask Sibelga. Privacy rules for cameras are a separate question from the power supply.
When is an off-grid system not the right choice?
Our verdict
An off-grid system fits lights, signs and cameras that stay in one place, far from the grid, and must run every night. When a connection is at the door, the grid is usually simpler. For large loads, such as floodlit sports fields or heated buildings, semi-off-grid or a connection makes more sense. For one lamp on a quiet path, an all-in-one solar lamp is enough.
Frequently asked questions
Can the system be connected to the grid later?
Yes, to a generator or to the public grid, for example when a street is built next to it.
What about lighting and cameras on temporary works?
For a building site or road works that last months, not years, a mobile solution fits better than a fixed system. Our article on the site battery shows how a battery tops up a small connection or generator.
Who designs and installs this in Belgium?
Look for an installer with its own engineering office and references it can show. YouPower, based in Zele, designs, installs and monitors off-grid and semi-off-grid systems in Flanders and Wallonia, as a Victron Energy Certified Partner.
Want to know what your site needs?
Tell us where the bridge, path or mast is, what has to run and for how many hours. One of our engineers will tell you honestly whether an off-grid system, a grid connection or simple solar lamps make the most sense.
- You send what you have. A site plan, the lights, signs and cameras with their power, the hours they must run, and the grid operator's quote if you have one.
- We measure where we can. Where loads already exist, the actual and peak consumption over a period size everything.
- Our engineering office calculates the system. The type, number and position of the panels, the inverters, the battery and, if needed, the generator.
- We build, test and put it into service. We carry out the entire installation ourselves.
- You follow it remotely. You see the system in real time in the app, with alerts. Our after-sales service follows up, and we are reachable 24/7.
Sources
- youpower.be/en/references/off-grid-systems/94-bicycle-bridge-waregem
- youpower.be/en/products/off-grid
- youpower.be/en/software
- youpower.be/en/about-us
- fluvius.be/nl/openbare-verlichting-particulier/straatverlichting
- ores.be/eclairage-public-de-ma-commune
- vlaamsenutsregulator.be/elektriciteit-en-aardgas/netbeheer/directe-lijnen-en-leidingen-ges
- economie.fgov.be/nl/themas/energie/bronnen-en-dragers-van-energie/elektriciteit/veiligheid
- re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvg_tools/en/
- sunrise-sunset.org/
- victronenergy.com/media/pg/Cerbo_GX/en/gx---generator-auto-start-stop.html