Glasgow City Council has commenced an eight-week trial of Kight’s KV-6 wind and solar powered lighting column in Kelvingrove Park as part of its review of parks lighting.
Installed adjacent to a playground, the KV-6 light aims to extend park usage beyond daylight hours, providing children with a safe environment to play on their way home from school, even as darkness descends. As a fully off-grid solution, the KV-6 is ideally suited for park environments where there is typically no power infrastructure, eliminating the need for costly trench digging associated with mains grid connections.
Designed with solar panels and a wind turbine working in tandem, the KV-6 maximises renewable energy capture, ensuring uninterrupted illumination throughout the extended hours of darkness. The solution offers dusk-to-dawn P4 class lighting, meeting rigorous street lighting standards, while also featuring remote control functionality and dimming capabilities. In consideration of local wildlife, the lantern emits a warm 3,000K light, promoting bat-friendly surroundings.
A second off-grid column powers monitoring equipment critical for trial data collection. This enables meticulous scrutiny of battery performance, ensuring sufficient energy reserves to power the light through nights, even during prolonged periods of adverse weather conditions. The cutting-edge wind turbine is engineered to efficiently harness energy, even in conditions of low wind speeds. Furthermore, the system’s advanced controller and battery are equipped to seamlessly accept and manage charge from both wind and solar sources concurrently, maximising the available energy input.
Kevin McCormick, Assistant Manager of Greenspace and Biodiversity at Glasgow City Council, stated, “We want to see if the lamp strikes the right balance between supporting how the park is used, sustainability & minimising impact on biodiversity. Early data suggests the KV-6 light is performing admirably, with battery levels quickly topped up.”
Brandon Weston, Sales and Marketing Manager at Kight Off-Grid, said, “We’re thrilled to demonstrate the suitability of our off-grid lighting for Glasgow City Council’s needs. Our technology boasts unique optimisation features, ensuring dependable performance in northerly parts of the UK. Our products feature fast-charging cells capable of receiving charge much faster than other solutions and operating effectively in sub-zero temperatures without any loss of performance.”
Glasgow City Council’s lighting trials form a pivotal component of its Parks Lighting Review, encompassing Cranhill Park, Queens Park, and Kelvingrove Park. Employing a place-based approach, the initiative considers biodiversity, climate emergency, health and wellbeing, and safety. Use of off-grid lighting technologies aligns with the Council’s mission to become a net zero carbon city by 2030.