Sep 6 2010
Today, Santa Fe Mayor David Coss and Qnuru™, the premier provider of energy efficient lighting solutions, held a “wire cutting” ceremony to mark the installation of solar-powered luminaires in three of the city’s public parks. The Qnuru off-grid fixtures, named the “Santa Fe” in honor of the city that inspired their design, illuminate Frenchy’s Field Park, a 17-acre “natural park” that occupies an important link in the city’s open-space network of trails and parks.
In addition, the Santa Fe solar fixtures are being installed in Santa Fe’s Salvador Perez and Monica Lucero parks. The off-grid luminaires were commissioned by the Santa Fe Parks Division and designed for Qnuru by Tom Joyce, a MacArthur-award winning metal smith whose sculptures have been exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, the Boston Museum of Fine Art, and the Musee Des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. The fixtures are ETL-Listed, dark-sky friendly and made in the U.S.
“This project is an exciting step toward reducing greenhouse gasses,” said Mayor David Coss. “Through the installation of these fixtures, Santa Fe will reduce its greenhouse gas generation by 18,500 pounds per year. Over the life of the fixtures, they will save in excess of 230 tons. This type of project shows that it is possible to make a huge difference in our environment and quality of life with something as simple as a light fixture. I applaud our Parks Division for their environmental leadership and the Housing and Urban Development and the Community Development Block Grant (HUD/CDBG) for funding the solar lights in the parks project. Without these agencies’ collaboration, the city’s vision of energy efficiency, sustainability and long-term cost savings could not have been realized.”
The Qnuru Santa Fe luminaires provide powerful, reliable solar-powered LED illumination for locations where electrical trenching is cost prohibitive and design aesthetics paramount, including parks, trailheads, wildlife areas, parking lots and facility perimeters. Unlike many solar-powered fixtures which “expose” their photovoltaic (PV) panels, the Santa Fe luminaire provides “invisible” solar-powered illumination by virtue of camouflaging the PV panels in an elegantly designed, pole mounted head enclosure that is protected by a convex, clear, impact-resistant lens.
“We applaud Santa Fe’s commitment to solar-powered lighting and its insistence that communities shouldn’t have to sacrifice beautiful design in order to save energy and do right by the environment,” said Rhonda Dibachi, President and CEO of Qnuru. “Most commercial-grade solar luminaires are eyesores and targets for vandals rather than aesthetic assets. Santa Fe has rightly earned its reputation as a city where the arts intersect with nature in their choice of our solar-powered lighting for their network of parks and trailheads.”
Bringing Solar Lighting Down to Earth
The standard Santa Fe fixture utilizes only 18 LEDs (19.8 watts) to produce an output of 79.5 lumens per watt (increased total lumen output options available depending on application requirements) and comes in three head designs: rectangular, round and oval. Three 12-volt solar batteries collect, store and discharge the energy collected during daylight hours from the “invisible” PV panels. Illumination is generated by Cree (NASDAQ: CREE) LEDs which are under mounted on a highly reflective luminaire behind a concave, translucent acrylic lens. All Santa Fe lights come equipped with Qnuru’s Universal Light Controller (ULC) smart board technology that provides an unprecedented degree of customer-defined programmability. The dual processor ULC smart board enables the Santa Fe fixtures to sense when dusk has arrived and turn themselves on, or can be programmed to illuminate at a predetermined time. The fixtures can also be programmed to dim or flicker prior to shutting off at night. During periods of extended overcast weather, the Santa Fe luminaires automatically reduce their power consumption in order to preserve the solar battery charge. At low illumination levels, the fixtures can provide up to four hours of light from as little as 30 minutes of sunshine and are capable of operating for up to five days using the solar battery backup in cases of highly inclement weather. Pole sizes and colors can be customer-specified based on site requirements.