Shedding light in a sustainable way

At AWE we actively seek ways to reduce or minimise our carbon footprint.

This short case study explains how we took a more sustainable approach to providing better lighting in one of our car parks.

The challenge

In 2012, low light measurements in one of the car parks on the Aldermaston site meant that we needed to install additional lighting to create better visibility.

Traditional lamp posts require a bottom-fed mains cable routed through underground trenches, connected back to a suitable switch room. We also needed sufficient spare capacity in the switch room, bringing the total cost to more than £30,000, as estimated by our Electrical Distribution Team.

The solution

The installation of solar and wind energy-powered lighting combined with high output, low consumption,Light Emitting Diode (LED) lamps attached to traditional posts gave us a much better and more sustainable solution.

It was more cost effective too. The total cost of purchasing, installing and commissioning three units was about £16,000 compared to about £36,000 for the mains-fed traditional lamp posts – an initial saving of some £20,000.

And because the new lighting uses ‘free’ electricity from renewable sources, we will also save an estimated additional £3,000 in energy costs over the anticipated 20-year lifetime compared with using traditionally powered 150-watt incandescent lamps.

Whilst the selection of this sustainable technology is suitable for this application, it is not recommended for areas where mains connection is possible. It may be the right lighting solution for remote areas where connection costs are high or when energy prices have increased considerably, but it must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.