Solar street lights are raised light sources which are powered by photovoltaic panels generally mounted on the lighting structure. The photovoltaic panels charge a rechargeable battery, which powers a fluorescent or LED lamp during the night.

LED is usually used as lighting source of modern solar street light, as the LED will provide much higher Lumens with lower energy consumption. The energy consumption of LED fixture is at least 50% lower than HPS fixture which is widely used as lighting source in Traditional street lights. LEDs lack of warm up time also allows for use of motion detectors for additional efficiency gains.