CleanTech Company Profile
SolarOne Lighting is involved in supplying solar powered lighting system for pathways and roadways. The company believes it is inevitable that, with the increased incidence of power outages due to the changing weather conditions, self powered critical lighting needs will have to be used to guarantee community safety.
SolarOne was recently awarded $138,774 in federal funds through the AusIndustry Grant system to develop its system, which sees lights mounted in the ground that are capable of withstanding a diverse range of weather, corrosion and impact conditions.
The funds will be used to research, design and build a suite of PV lights for municipal applications including off-road pathways, parks and gardens, eco-sensitive trails, monuments, boardwalks and landscaping.
Ultimately it hopes to extend the technology into other main roads lighting applications such as traffic guidance, lane separation and sub-network backup lighting.
The lights will reduce greenhouse emissions associated with stationary energy generation by using PV solar cells, ultracapacitors and Light Emitting Diodes (LED).
“We have completed user-needs trials in collaboration with councils and bicycle user groups and, from the study’s findings, industrial and electronic engineers have begun to design the necessary smart technology control platform and housing tooling,” managing director Hugh Mitchell told Environmental Management News.
“We have planned to commence trials with Adelaide City Council in [the second quater] of 2010 and will engage some of the alloy casting and plastic moulding manufacturing capability currently underutilised due to the closure of the Mitsubishi plant in SA.”
The trial will be supported with a PR campaign to alert other SA councils, with the national sales campaign expected to lead to international marketing efforts.
The main advantage of the SolarOne approach is in the design of the power storage unit, which it claims overcomes many of the weaknesses of conventional panel arrays that are exposed to the rigour of weather and human nature.
Most other solar devices also use rechargeable batteries that usually require bi-annual replacement. The ultracapacitors SolarOne uses, however, have virtually no practical limits on the number of times they can be recharged.
Ultracapacitors enable the lighting devices to be used in any environment without maintenance for more than 10 years and in a wide operating temperature range of -40 degrees to +167 degrees.
Daytime solar energy is converted into electricity through solar cells and stored in the ultracapacitor. As light levels fall at night-time, the system automatically switches on to produce light.
Full charge takes about four hours under direct sunlight or six under shade or overcast conditions. Light can be emitted for more than 12 hours when the ultracapacitor is fully charged.
The result being an equally suitable lighting array and an overall saving of power and thus less greenhouse gases.