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Climate Confident - Practical Climate Solutions That Cut Emissions

Climate Confident is for business leaders, climate professionals and policymakers who need to understand what is actually cutting emissions—and what it takes to make those solutions work at scale.

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Climate Confident - Practical Climate Solutions That Cut Emissions

Solar Streetlights Are Resilience Infrastructure, Not Just Cheap Power

May 13, 2026 • Tom Raftery • Season 1 • Episode 275

0:00 | 35:14

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Streetlights sound boring. Until the grid fails and they’re the only lights left on.

In this episode of Climate Confident, I’m joined by Liam Ryan, CEO of Streetleaf, a climate tech company rethinking one of the most overlooked pieces of public infrastructure: the streetlight. And yes, I know. Streetlights. Hardly the sexiest corner of the energy transition. But this conversation quickly becomes about something much bigger: resilience, decarbonisation, public safety, emissions reduction, and how we build communities that keep functioning as extreme weather puts more pressure on the grid.

You’ll hear why the real cost of streetlighting often isn’t the electricity at all. It’s trenching, wiring, maintenance, utility control, copper theft, repair delays, and infrastructure that can take far too long to fix. Liam explains how solar-plus-battery streetlights can avoid much of that mess while helping cities, developers, and communities move closer to net zero.

We dig into how Streetleaf’s lights performed during hurricanes, why three to five days of battery backup matters, how monitoring changes maintenance, and why policy can help but won’t replace cost and performance. You might be shocked to learn that in some cases, utilities can delay streetlight repairs for months while the customer keeps paying. Delightful system design, if your goal is public frustration.

This is a practical episode about climate tech that works in the real world: faster installs, fewer wires, lower emissions, better uptime, and infrastructure that earns its keep when conditions get ugly.

🎙️ Listen now to hear how Liam Ryan and Streetleaf are helping turn streetlights into part of the climate resilience toolkit.

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