Solar and Wind Powered LED Street Lights: Norway Business Plan
This business plan proposes establishing a company to sell or rent solar and wind hybrid LED street light systems to the Norwegian government, with initial startup funding of approximately five million kroner sought from Innovation Norway. The plan outlines the significant economic and environmental benefits of LED technology — including reduced greenhouse gas emissions, lower maintenance costs, and extended lamp life — and situates the proposal within Norway's supportive research and development environment. It identifies prospective international vendors, details key technical specifications required of the systems, and explains the structure and mission of Innovation Norway as the primary funding source. A pilot program of 130 street lamps in Rogaland County is proposed for independent performance verification.
- Introduction and Goals: Dual objectives: funding and product sales
- Potential Benefits of LED and Hybrid Energy Street Lighting: Environmental and economic benefits of LED systems
- Background and Market Overview: Market opportunity and Norway's R&D environment
- Funding Through Innovation Norway: Funding sources and Innovation Norway's role
- Potential Vendors and Technical Requirements: Vendor comparison table and technical questionnaire
- References: Academic and institutional sources cited
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What makes this paper effective
- The plan is structured around a clear dual objective — securing government funding and selling a product — which anchors every subsequent section to a practical business purpose.
- Quantified claims (e.g., 258 million metric tons of CO₂ avoided, $280 billion saved annually, 62% reduction in electricity demand) give the benefits section persuasive specificity.
- The vendor comparison table organizes technical and pricing information efficiently, allowing decision-makers to evaluate options at a glance.
- The paper correctly contextualizes the Norwegian R&D environment, citing academic literature to support the viability of public-private partnership models.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The plan integrates both academic citations and real-world case examples (Los Angeles, Chicago) to reinforce its core argument. This dual-sourcing approach — combining peer-reviewed research with documented municipal outcomes — is a hallmark of applied business writing that must persuade a non-academic, policy-minded audience.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a statement of objectives, then builds a benefits case before providing organizational and market context. The funding section details the specific agency and its mandate, while the vendor section grounds the proposal in operational feasibility. The plan concludes with a structured vendor questionnaire, demonstrating readiness to proceed. This progression moves logically from "why" to "how," following a standard business plan framework.
Introduction and Goals
The overarching goal of this business plan is twofold: (a) to obtain start-up funds in the approximate amount of five million kroner from the Norwegian government, represented by Innovation Norway; and (b) to sell or rent solar and wind hybrid powered street light-emitting diode (LED) lamps to the Norwegian government.
Potential Benefits of LED and Hybrid Energy Street Lighting
The solution envisioned in this business plan is based on proven, cost-effective technologies and will provide significant economic and environmental benefits by reducing the energy requirements for the country's tens of thousands of street lights. Not only is there a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions because the solar- and wind-generated energy is stored in a battery, but light-emitting diode (LED) systems also operate more efficiently than their incandescent counterparts. The most salient benefits include the following:
1. Long life. The long life of LED lighting means that lamp changing and lamp failures are a thing of the past. LED lighting life is up to 100,000 hours. In a typical nighttime burning situation, this equates to approximately 25 years.
2. Reliability. LEDs, as electronic devices, offer superb reliability over conventional lamps.
3. Maintenance-free operation. No routine maintenance is required to ensure continued performance, thereby reducing costs and avoiding the possibility of missed maintenance.
4. Energy efficiency. With advanced LEDs and optimized luminaire design, energy-efficient operation is ensured.
5. Environmental benefits. Lamp disposal problems are eliminated due to the long life of LED lights, and no resources are consumed in routine maintenance.
6. New lighting possibilities. New luminaire designs are made possible by the small size of LEDs and the elimination of the maintenance requirements associated with conventional lamps (Solar powered LED lighting, 2011, para. 3).
7. Simply replacing traditional streetlights with LED bulbs could avoid 258 million metric tons of CO₂ and save up to $280 billion per year (Trisolini, 2009).
8. Rapid adoption of LED lights by cities over the next twenty years could reduce electricity demands from lighting by 62% (Trisolini, 2009).
9. Converting the 272,000 traffic signals in the United States to LED bulbs could yield net emission savings of approximately 2,162,000 tons per year (Trisolini, 2009).
Given the significant benefits that can be realized through the use of solar-wind power hybrid LED street light systems, it is not surprising that many major cities around the world have deployed these systems in recent years. For instance, Trisolini reports that "Los Angeles has recently embarked on an initiative to retrofit 140,000 streetlights with LED bulbs, reducing its annual greenhouse gas emissions by 40,500 tons per year (while saving $10,000,000 annually)" (p. 863). Likewise, a number of other major cities in the United States have recognized the benefits of LED street lights, including Chicago, where the city has saved $2.25 million per year since 2004 in street lighting costs (Trisolini, 2009).
Background and Market Overview
The business plan envisioned herein is supported by a working group of three professionals with expertise in the field of sustainable energy. The working group has developed a set of optimal operational parameters that must be satisfied in order to bring this solution to fruition. Following the identification of a suitable vendor that can provide the supporting technologies in a cost-effective fashion, the working group intends to solicit permission from the Norwegian government in Rogaland County, situated on the west coast of Norway, to pilot test 130 alternative energy-powered street lights. The operational characteristics of the 130 pilot test street lamps will be analyzed by a third-party independent Norwegian company for a period of one year in order to verify performance levels in the sometimes-inclement Norwegian climate.
The market for street lights powered by alternative energy sources is currently unlimited in Norway as well as throughout the rest of the European Union nations. Moreover, the market has never been greater for products of this type, and Norway's research and development environment — which emphasizes public-private partnerships — is highly conducive to projects of this kind. For instance, Hildrum, Finsrud, and Klethagen (2009) report that "the conditions for doing research in Norway are currently being influenced by decentralization of R&D resources to the regional level. This corresponds with a widespread belief among academics and governments that regionally-based collaborations among public organizations, private industry, and R&D are crucial for innovation and value creation" (p. 256).
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