When a large industrial mining company had a need to provide lighting for key areas within their massive, constantly changing land mine facility, they turned to SEPCO to help design a fully portable, off-grid solar power lighting solution. The street light systems need to be moved as the terrain changes, as well as provide efficient lighting for the safety and security of workers of the mine. Since this cannot be done with traditional electric lights, solar street lighting systems were the best option for the mining company.
After gathering all pertinent information about the mining company’s lighting needs and requirements, including light levels and operation, SEPCO designed a system that combines our ultra-reliable off-grid pole-mounted solar power system with a durable, high-performance Genesis LED light fixture. These systems operate for a few hours after dusk during peak mine operation hours before automatically switching over to energy and cost-efficient motion-activated lighting for the rest of the night. This lowered the project's overall cost by having the lights only run when needed and reducing the solar and battery requirements.
As indicated in the project photos, the mining company embedded our pole-mounted solar street lighting systems inside a giant tire filled with concrete as the means to create a free-standing, completely portable industrial lighting system that can be quickly/easily moved with a forklift anywhere throughout the entire mining facility. As things shift, the mining facility moves the lights to the new location. A very creative application of off-grid solar lighting, to be sure!
Another way to have movable solar lighting systems is to use a prefab concrete base. These are designed by a factory and are designed to line up with the anchor bolt pattern of a standard anchor base pole. The concrete base is installed into the ground, and the pole is set on top.
Finally, one more way to make a solar light system movable is to use helical base poles. These have a long screw that goes into the ground, similar to a direct burial pole, but uses a standard anchor base pole as well. These are great for areas that do not have concrete available in the area or want to disturb the surrounding areas the least.