London Optimist BMO Sports Centre

The BMO Centre, owned and operated by the Lon­don Optimists, is a 110,000 square foot world class soccer and sports facility, which had its official open­ing October 21, 2011 in London, Ontario. This will be one of the largest, primarily soccer based, sports centres in Canada. The field opens to a full size FIFA regulation field but will typically be split into 4 mini indoor soccer fields for league play and tourna­ments. There is also a 1,360 foot long mezzanine exercise track. The vehicle and pedestrian entryway for this $10-Million community sports venue is illu­minated by solar LED streetlights.

ProQuip International engineered and installed 5 of their MaxSUN™ solar LED lighting systems to safely illuminate the drive and pathway leading to the front entrance of the facility. The 5 LED streetlights are powered off-grid by solar panels and batteries, all mounted on 30 foot steel poles set on concrete tube foundations. Being solar powered, the lights are cost effective in terms of no energy costs, no trench­ing or cabling and minimal maintenance costs. The batteries being recharged by the solar panels can be expected to last up to seven years.

The MaxSUN™ system’s programmable Charge and Light Controller automatically manages the opera­tion of the LED streetlights based on the time of day and amount of sunlight available to the solar pan­els. As dusk approaches, the Controller will turn on the streetlights at full brightness for 7 hours. After 7 hours, the streetlights are dimmed to 30% bright­ness, which helps preserve battery power during a period of little to no pedestrian traffic, and are then turned back on for one and a half hours before dawn, at which time the lights go out and the batter­ies recharge. This cycling of the lights is particularly useful during the winter months when it is dark in the early morning hours and pedestrian traffic is expected.

The 248 AH, high cycle capacity, AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat) batteries provide 15 hours of lighting power per night with over 8 days of storage. The autodimming profile ensures that they never dis­charge to the point of damaging them, even during long periods of inclement weather with little to no sunlight.

PROJECT PHOTOMETRICS

When asked why solar LED lighting was selected over the more traditional street lighting options, Construction Project Manager Jack Baribeau re­sponded “We wanted people to enter the site and view the solar street lights as they come in and leave the facility as a statement to the public of the state of the art technology that was used throughout the facility. The LED component was chosen for the maintenance free and long life qualities of the tech­nology.” He added that, from a quality of illumina­tion point “It looks great and provides the light levels where needed to provide safe entry into the facility”.

The opportunity to install the solar LED lighting sys­tems came as a result of LOSC’s search for a rooftop solar PV energy provider. “We asked for solar propos­als from a number of companies specific to a roof top installation. We felt the package provided by PQI was very well done, complete with details and the draft contract provided was very fair and presented both party’s perspectives. There was an added com­fort level in our dealings with them because of this” Baribeau stated.

In also choosing PQI for a solar LED lighting solution for the entrance, he said that “The (Green) branding, environmental statement and cost efficiencies were all considerations.”

The content & opinions in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of AltEnergyMag

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