Beyond Electric DreamsAll-electric airliners may still be the stuff of technologist’s dreams, but the clever, careful use of alternatively-generated electricity and solar systems is already reaping benefits at airports. Poland’s S4GA produces a range of innovative solar-powered airfield lighting solutions and while Marketing Manager Olga Ziniuk admits the sun is a little too shy in northern Europe to make solar power a practical year-round solution, she emphasises that S4GA supplies complete airfield lighting solutions for all types and sizes of airport, from small domestic airstrips to international hubs.
The company’s solar units are designed as an alternative to diesel generators for airports where laying electric cables is impossible or undesirable, or where local electricity supplies are unreliable, but have obvious potential for reducing emissions. Ziniuk cites Dhaalu Airport, a regional airfield on Dhaalu Atoll in the Maldives, as a prime user of S4GA solar airfield lighting. “The airport was unable to install conventional wired lighting, leaving them to choose between diesel generators and solar power. They chose our equipment, which requires neither an electrical grid nor back-up power source.”
Source: EVA Executive & VIP Aviation Int
