Southampton Airport the recipient of new solar lighting system
The Southampton Airport runway is the newest recipient of its own solar-powered lighting system.
Dubbed the ‘Wig Wags’, the flashing light stream was just £25,000 in total and has been set up at junctions between the taxiways and the runway. The move makes Southampton the first UK airport to install the lights, which have also previously been used by the US Air Force stationed in Afghanistan.
According to an airport spokesperson, the airport has been able to use the new system to minimise its environmental impact as well as maintenance costs. The five units that were installed were designed and supplied by Systems Interface Ltd, which operates in Surrey. Each unit uses solar panels to generate electricity from sunlight allowing them to operate 24 hours a day.
Each unit’s battery can store enough energy so that it can operate for nearly 120 days with no solar charge. Lights have also been placed in airport areas where there is no access to electricity which is saving the airport operators up to £170,000 in cable costs.
Last winter the system was trialled and has now been placed throughout the airport as a permanent solution to curbing the airport’s carbon footprint. According to Mark Gibb, director for the airside operations, its not a major overall to save energy but it was a start and showed the airport’s overall commitment to improving.
Source: http://www.recycle.co.uk/news/2593000.html
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