Saudi Arabia as the regional leader sets a stone in the renewable energy initiatives, that include large infrastructure projects. One of the main components of such projects are solar streetlights, as the most logical solution due to the suitable weather conditions, but also lack of already existing infrastructure at certain areas of the country. Saudi is currently one of the only countries that is building new cities from the ground up, that are not only residential, but also business centers and industrial areas all at the same place. Their approach is to have these cities develop in a way that they attract companies and their employees to both live and work in a completely new environment, that is powered only by renewable energy.
EnGoPlanet had a chance to work on Zahid Park project that started in 2021 and is being developed by one of the largest local companies Zahid Group. As the project is a large industrial area, their need for solar streetlights was specific, and had to be suited for such development. In our product portfolio, there are several options Urban/Commercial Lighting, Decorative Lighting, and Industrial/Commercial Lighting.
For the purpose of this project, we used our EnGo Tower solar streetlight model, that suits this specific environment, due to its large road network. Generally, Tower is perfectly suited for suburban areas, wide roads, highways and is also the right option for large logistics and industrial centers like Zahid Park. As there are varieties to this model, they opted for the solution with strong LEDs and high poles. Out of 200 poles that are installed, 50% are single arm 80W LED and other half are double arm poles using 60W LEDs, all using standard 11m poles.
One of the biggest benefits of EnGo Tower solar streetlight model is that it can be used on almost any pole as a retrofit solution. For that reason, most of the times, just a regular round pole is the best option, due to the price, manufacturing possibilities, and an option to buy poles locally. Tower is a separate solar module that is attached directly to the pole at the moment of installation. Depending on the pole heigh and LED requirement, from 1 up to 5 modules can be attached. Each module has 360-degree 160Wp solar panels that allows all day charging. For this project we used Tower 3 and Tower 4, totaling 480 Wp and 640 Wp solar power on each pole, that would perfectly support the LED requirement.
Another important aspect is the battery storage. As Saudi Arabia has a very high average temperature throughout the year, it is very important to protect the batteries from heat as much as possible. That is why our suggestion was to have an underground battery storage. For this project GEL batteries were used. Tower also has an option to have integrated Lithium batteries inside the modules, but this option is for markets that do not have such extreme weather conditions.
EnGo Tower besides that it is used for less attractive locations, is still very thoughtfully designed and does make the lights unique, adding value to the aesthetics of the whole area. Comparing it to standard solar streetlights, with regular solar panels on top of the pole, the quality in design is significant.