Smart energy has been one of the great advances of the digital age. Smart lighting, in particular, has the potential for great energy and cost savings. City governments especially can benefit from smart lighting technology.

According to a recent market report, “Market Data: Smart Street Lighting,” by market research firm Navigant Research, cities are taking advantage of this opportunity and the market is expected to grow in the coming years. The report analyzes the current state and future trajectory of the smart street lighting market with a focus on key market trends, drivers and barriers.

The report notes that smart lighting is especially attractive to city governments as the first smart solution they adopt. According to Ryan Citron, senior research analyst at Navigant Research, smart lighting offers cities “immediate and significant energy and maintenance savings.”

He adds that smart lighting helps cities expand their adoption of smart energy generally, as many use their smart lighting technology as a platform for other smart technology solutions.

The Navigant report also notes that electric utilities in the United States, especially those that have an ownership interest in street lighting infrastructure, are adopting smart street lighting technology at an increased rate.

The study observes that the favorable market for smart street lighting has made it one of the most rapidly expanding technologies in the smart cities market. During the past two years, millions of control nodes have been deployed on streetlights worldwide. The installed base is expected to reach roughly 90 million worldwide by 2028.

Not surprisingly, Navigant is bullish on the corresponding market for smart street lighting technology. It expects the value of that market to reach almost $740 million in 2019. Growth is projected to surge in the years ahead, at a compound annual growth rate of 28.5%, reaching slightly more than $7 billion by 2028.