Possible solution for no-wires arena lighting

[HungarianHippo]

http://ariswind.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Aris-RPU-Oct15.pdf

I am looking at this product for work-related reasons, and thought some here might be interested in them for lighting a riding arena where you don’t have electric service. It’s a combination wind/solar powered LED pole light, bright enough to work as a streetlight. Before the “renewables will never work!” crowd says “b-b-b-b-b-ut the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow” this unit has integrated energy storage to last 4-5 days (assuming all-night operation). This company has multiple installations at universities for dusk/dawn sidewalk lighting and have not had any outages.
I have no idea the cost each, so you’d have to price it out.

Just thought I’d share since they seem to be working well.

[Bluey]

Interesting.

You think they would have a picture showing the light at night and what all it illuminates?

Generally such lights are rated by the cone of light they provide at different heights.

The T5s we have in our covered arena are rated to have a light foot print at 18’ high of 30’ x 20’ and so many lumen each and they are very much true to that.

[Bluey]

I didn’t see the pictures.
Sure looks like plenty of light there.

Interesting concept.

[clanter]

Cost will be of course a big question–

there is still in place the 30% Federal tax credit for alternative renewable energy (wind/solar) for primary residences… gradual phasing out of this program starts in the early 2020s

[Guilherme]

I looked these up and they look interesting as they have two power sources and that will work well in a lot of places.

I could find NOTHING on cost. There was one article that discussed the installation of these in Grenada but it talked about a gross amount of light for $6.5 Million and there was no way to figure out the cost of an individual unit. Maybe somebody else is a better researcher than I am!!!

They must have a fairly robust battery installed as the claims are that it can go for several days with limited “recharging.” Here in the TN Valley, where we have the double-whammy of lots of cloud cover and low average wind velocities, that might be the thing that makes them viable.

G.

[HungarianHippo]

I went ahead and asked them to come in for a meeting and will fish around for $/kwh installed. I’m expecting it’ll be pricey, so it’ll hinges on the site-specific costs you’re avoiding --how expensive to run a new power line from your pole and between lamps, and how expensive is your purchased electricity. And of course wind/solar resource (but they have good uptime data for a site in NY state that has low avg winds, so maybe…). The shrouded turbine serves to amplify whatever wind you’ve got. I’d consider teh aesthetics a wash-- yes you get to avoid lots of new overhead powerlines, but these things are pretty ugly IMO.

Clanter- would be very interesting to see how the feds treat this, relative to incentive eligibility. The wind Investment Tax Credit is already phasing out and completely expires end of 2019. Benefits are rather paltry already. In 2017, you only get 24% of the 30% benefit. In other words, 6% credit. By 2019, it’s just 12% of 30%. The solar ITC remains in full effect through 2020 before it too starts stepping down. So how would they treat this dual power system? Dunno. Your state and utility may still have some nice incentives for both technologies–the DSIREUSA.org is a good site to find out what incentives apply to your situation.

G- yeah, battery looks good but keep in mind the very low load that the LED light places on this system. And if you’re just lighting an arena while it’s in use, I bet it’d work out fine. I’ve invited our energy storage expert to this meeting on Friday so he can probe in more detail.

Will let you guys know what I find out.

[HungarianHippo]

OK, met with the company on Friday. Very solid on the technical side. I’m impressed with the wind turbine’s power curve-- it’ll make decent power even in low wind sites. (Again, with the caveat that all it needs to do is run an 80W LED light and trickle charge a big-ass battery). Costs: as expected, too high. MSRP $10k but def negotiable. They’re still in early stage production, have about 90 units installed in US. They have focused mostly on schools, universities, and municipal customers since those groups tend to benefit more from a big statement on green energy. And who don’t have as strong a profit motive. In other words, to support the cost you will need to place a pretty high value on sustainability and the off-grid aspect. The avoided costs, compared to running new electric service to the site, will not pay for it on its own.
Prices will come down as they get more manufacturing efficiencies and bigger markets. I did tell them to look into equestrian arena markets as they expand their markets.

Thus concludes my market research on behalf of COTH.

[Bluey]

Thank you!

Maybe they could engineer things like time the light needs to illuminate down?
For horse arenas the lights don’t have to be on all night, but a few hours some evenings.
That may let them make the cost more reasonable for the equestrian market.

[luvmyhackney]

Very interesting. Thank you for taking the time to find out about them.