AIRFIELD LIGHTING | FEATURE
but also to come up with a range of innovative products that expands the well-known advantages of this technology even further. The intro- duction of this type of lighting on the runways is a major step towards perfectly meeting our clients’ requirements,” says Bruno Urbaing, ADB product manager for inset lights. Airports that have expressed interest in the AD-Light solution include Paris Charles de Gaulle for installation as takeoff hold lights on the run- way. The lights will signal pilots if the runway is safe for takeoff irrespec- tive of visibility conditions.
It takes a considerable amount of energy to keep taxiways lit and op- erational through the night, especially the long winter nights. However, one Louisiana airport in America has resorted to storing the sun’s energy for nighttime use.
A solar test programme went live at False River Regional Airport in 2010. It’s an all solar-powered airfield taxiway circuit using LED light- ing and a solar energy management system. Perhaps not surprisingly, ADB was on site to provide its LED products along with solar energy specialist Carmanah Technologies. Is solar powered airfield lighting a viable option? “We did an installation at False River Airport in Louisiana to test the concept and to have an installation for demo purposes,” says ADB’s Em- manuelle Luque. “As we suspected, the interest in the US is low, due to the fact that airport investments are linked to FAA funding, and the FAA is only funding lighting that meets specific specifications. The interest outside the US is mainly in South America but there are no takers yet.” At the time of writing, Luque said representatives from South America were due to make a site visit to False River Airport to see the system. According to data from ADB the False River system is capable of run- ning for 3.5 days at full load with batteries charged by the sun using a single large solar panel to run 164 LED taxiway edge lights. The old system used a 15Kw Constant Current Regulator (CCR) and 164 45-watt lamps and required more than 7,400 watts of power every day compared to the new system, which requires 742 watts.
The change to new technology at False River has resulted in a cost
saving of 90 percent before the solar portion of the project was imple- mented. The addition of solar has made the taxiway circuit completely autonomous since “no grid power is used.” Despite the relative success of the project at False River, a spokesman at the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development said
“The interest in the US is low, due to the fact that airport investments are linked to FAA funding, and the FAA is only funding lighting that meets specific specifications”
that there was a triple redundancy plan in place. The taxiway circuit uses solar as its primary power, but the system can automatically change to traditional electrical power if necessary and there is also a diesel genera- tor as backup. “We haven’t had a system failure since the solar-powered Advanced Power Supply (APS) system was put in service in May 2010,” says a spokesman. He further says: “The LED taxiway lights receive modulated DC cur- rent from the APS that provides the desired light intensity. The APS is powered by an AC inverter, which receives DC current from a solar- charged battery bank. The LEDs require so little energy that the lamps don’t need 30/45 watt isolation transformers at every fixture to regulate the amount of power coming into the unit.”
Experts predict that smaller airports will quickly embrace the new
technology, as well as airports in emerging regions such as the Carib- bean and South America where there is high interest in solar. Further predictions are that airports will eventually look to solar-driven LED lighting to power signs and obstruction lights.
Iraj Ghaemi says San Diego International has seen several benefits after converting to LED lights. Photo-SDIA
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MARCH 2012 | AIRSIDE INTERNATIONAL 23
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