May 17 2004
After recently scooping a new product award at Interbuild, solarcentury hit the jackpot again with a £75K grant to develop a range of solar powered street furniture products under the Knowledge Transfer Programme (KTP).
The joint project between solarcentury and The University of Reading's Energy Group and Electronic Engineering Department will support the evolution of the award winning solar lighting solution which is already in the field all over the UK including Plymouth, Watford, Stoke, London and Aberdeen.
The streetsmartTM lighting solution transforms a bus shelter into an independent power unit. From the custom made solar module, the long life cyclic batteries, the custom designed low power controller, high efficiency LEDs and light diffusing membrane, every aspect of the solution relies on the latest in modern innovation.
Dan Davies, Director of Engineering said, "This award from the DTI will allow us to build on our successful track record in the street furniture market. We have installed over 600 streetsmart systems across the UK - powering lights, RTPI, and ticket machines. Now we will be able to turn our expertise to developing solar systems for other application such as street advertising."
Streetsmart gives bus shelter manufacturers and Councils the ability to install illuminated shelters wherever they want without the associated costs and delays of traditional grid connection. Our product combines state of the art LED lighting with a high efficiency controller. The SC3 controller incorporates advanced energy management features to control the lighting whilst maximising the solar energy harnessed by the photovoltaic modules.
Martin Bellamy off grid solar system designer at solarcentury added, "This is an excellent opportunity to develop the use of other micro power generation technologies in street furniture as well as innovative energy storage systems and advanced lighting and display technologies."
Source: solarcentury