Permanent Solar Runway Lighting Installation
Elliot Lake Municipal Airport (YEL) located 12 km southeast of the city off Highway 108. The airport offers services, facilities, and attractions for passengers, cargo, and air ambulance services.
They have a 4500-foot runway x 100ft wide with an in-ground lighting system that some say could be 50 years old. The cables and transformers are directly buried with no drawings showing locations. The system has been working but with a lot of power leakage due to the age of the system.
The installation normally with a Permanent Solar Runway system is straightforward but in this case and because we do not have locations, putting in the concrete bases for the lights is a challenge.
Included in this installation are Solar Powered Windcones and Solar Engines to power the Halogen PAPI’s on both ends of the runway.
To date, we have done all civil works in preparation for the arrival of Lights and Solar Engines. Several design changes have been made to accommodate the heartier Canadian climate for Solar products. This includes a doubling of the battery size in the solar engines running the PAPI’s, because they are Halogen and use a lot of power, more standby power was required for the cold and snowy days they might have.
We have extended the post length in the SP 401 Runway light from the base to raise the Solar Panel up higher, thus giving the airport more clearance in case of snow buildup on the side of the runway.
Enclosed are a few pictures of the Elliot Lake Lights being built and of the civil works putting in Solar Engine pads and Light pads to mount runway lights.
