Case Study - UK M1 & M621 Motorway Solar Kits

We were contacted to design a customised solar lighting system, suitable for the pedestrian refuge areas along side motorways.

Our client was looking for a solution to reduce noise pollution in areas declared as a ‘Noise Impact Area’  where space was limited and traditional designs were not suitable as they required separate noise barriers and vehicle restraint systems.
Our client put forward a proposal for an environmental barrier which doubled up as a vehicle restraint system. Two levels of crash barrier were incorporated into the design to cover any eventuality of potential collisions from small vehicles to HGV’s. 
The design endured rigorous testing and complies with required standards, adaptable to allow installation around street furniture and across bridges. 
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The missing piece for this setup was a breakdown area, with traditional crash barriers motorists are able to stand behind the barrier until recovery vehicles arrive to assist. This would not be an option for these dual function barriers. To solve this, steel crash doors were included in the design to allow motorists access to a pedestrian refuge area.
Britalitez were involved to design an 'Off-Grid' lighting system to incorporate into the crash barrier design where the refuge area could be lit up when required if a breakdown occurs.
The essential requirements for this were to:
  • Provide emergency sign lighting which would be illuminated when dark.
  • Provide LED flood lighting to refuge area which would illuminate if someone enters.
  • Ensure the kit be powered completely off-grid.
  • Ensure the kits were durable enough to withstand the harsh motorway environment.
We took on the challenge and started to plan out the design for the kit. To fulfil the main requirements we knew that we would need dusk-til-dawn sensors for the emergency sign lighting. For the LED flood lights to come on as and when someone was using the refuge area we needed motion sensors, these had to be altered to reduce the field of motion so as to minimise any false triggers. To guarantee the kit was completely off-grid we opted for Victron solar equipment and all the components were to be housed in steel enclosures for durability and ensuring no water ingress.
Solar System Specification:
  • Victron 115W Solar panel.
  • Victron Smart charge controller with built in bluetooth for remote engineer servicing & system updates.
  • Total of 24AH 12V lithium based battery system.
  • 2 x Emergency sign lighting with custom plug and play wiring harness.
  • 2 x LED Flood lights (2000LM total output) with custom plug and play wiring harness.
  • Panel mounted connectors to speed up installation on site, inc MC4 solar connectors, lighting circuits, light sensor and PIR sensor.
  • Enclosed within a metal, lockable enclosure box (IP67).
The solar systems were then to be mounted onto custom aluminium frames which featured adjustable brackets to allow correct positioning of the solar panels regardless of which side of the motorway they were placed. In addition to this, the use of the Victron Smart charge controller meant that the power generation of each kit could be downloaded to any smartphone, via the Victron app, to review performance and pick up on potential problems.
The installation process was undertaken by the client and signed off by our MD Steve Hume, who attended site for testing and confirmation of solar panel location, this gave us a great opportunity to check out the systems as a whole.