Dakar renovates its public lighting with COMBI TOP 5 solar streetlamps of Novéa Energies

Looking towards solar solutions for a long time, Dakar City wanted to renovate its solar street lights stock integrating this time the cutting-edge Lithium battery Endurance + of Novéa Energies located in their NOVBOX at the top of the pole, preventing from vandalism.

Senegal is committed for years in a global process for energy accessibility, with a programme called “Universal access”. This strategy concerns not only energy production and distribution, but also public lighting. Several solar public lighting projects were realised since 2012 and keep being solicited by the government as indicated by the last statement of the Head of State His Excellency Macky SALL, explaining that 100 000 additional solar poles will be installed. Challenge met as the technology was markedly developed to be as efficient as traditional on-grid lighting solutions.

It is in this context that Dakar develops his public lighting with solar solutions. The city is partly lighted with solar energy since 2012. Keen to propose even more high-performance lampposts, the city decided to renovate some of its autonomous streetlamps. Thus, the solar sets situated on the parallel road to the motorway were replaced by COMBI TOP 5 of Novéa Energies and installed by the company ERT. An opportunity to review two important evolutions of this decade: battery technology and anti-vandalism improvement.

The teams of the company ERT installed the COMBI TOP 5 of Novéa Energies on the parallel road of the motorway.

Endurance + battery: an exclusive technology

Novéa Energies has worked for more than 6 years in partnership with The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (C.E.A), to propose the most suitable battery for public solar lighting market.

This battery is made up of Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) technology, which was selected over other Lithium Ion, Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMh) or Lead technology for its durability, resistance to high temperatures and energy efficiency. Novéa then chose the best cells and realised extensive laboratory tests to meet the high-quality level typical of its products.

Thanks to this in-depth Research and Development process, Novéa offers today the best lifespan on the market (>12 years (4 500 cycles) at 30 % of discharge per night at 35 °C and >20 years (8 000 cycles) at 30 % of discharge per night at 25 °C). This battery also resists to extreme temperatures (+65°C) and is engineered for year-round operation at the same power level.

What is the C.E.A ?

This is a public scientific, technical and industrial research organisation (EPIC). It devotes most of its research to the development of new technologies in the fields of energy, health, information and communication. The CEA Grenoble centre is at the cutting-edge of technological research and actively engages in sharing its knowledge with the industry.

A circuit board to optimise the lifespan

The company made a simple analysis: the more you discharge a battery, the less it will last. This is why the circuit board intervenes via a personalised operating program for the solar street light which will limit the energy consumption. Thus, Novéa Energies limits the daily discharge of its battery at 30% to ensure autonomy close to 3 nights and guarantee an optimal operating of the lamppost.

This circuit board dedicated to endurance + battery is fully developed by Novéa Energies to offer qualitative materials which meet clients’ requirements. This regulator is the brain of the solar streetlamp. It enables to handle precisely all the energy flux by bringing essential securities for an optimal management of the battery and the lighting.

The NOVBOX : a robust casing at the top of the pole

The endurance + battery and the circuit board are combined in a casing developed by Novéa Energies. So, the entire control system of the solar lamppost is mastered by the company, a real distinction on the solar lighting market. The casing is conceived and composed by die-cast aluminium to ensure robustness and watertightness over its lifespan.

After noticing numerous situations of vandalism on the batteries situated at the bottom of the pole, Novéa Energies decided to deploy this new technology by fixing this casing at the top of the pole, behind the solar panel. To reinforce the security, the NOVBOX is also sealed by anti-vandalism screws and bolts.

In this way, Dakar chose a cutting-edge technology to renovate its stock of solar lighting. With the COMBI TOP 5 of Novéa Energies, the city owns efficient, tailor-made and secure lampposts, which vanish in the environment as explain M. Mbar NDIAYE, the installer of the company ERT: “the lighting level is perfect. The design is very plain and nice. Difficult to find a more qualitative product. »

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