Energy agency instals solar, LED lights at Stabroek Market Square

A section of the Stabroek Market Square
A section of the Stabroek Market Square

In the latter part of December 2017, the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA), through a project financed by the Government of Guyana, installed twelve integrated 80W solar-powered street lights around the Stabroek Market Square and 750 energy efficient Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs around the eastern facade of the building.

According to a release yesterday from the GEA, the integrated solar-powered lights that were installed use renewable energy from the sun to charge the batteries which provide lighting at nights using energy efficient LED lights. The lights are controlled by a light sensitive circuit which switches the lights on in the evenings and turns them off at dawn. As part of the energy conservation drive, the technology dims the lights by 50% when motion is not detected and returns to 100% brightness when motion is detected. One advantage of the systems is that they are not powered by the utility, thereby avoiding the use of fossil-based energy from the grid and the associated costs.

The release said that the second component of the project was the replacement of the seven hundred and fifty 13-Watts compact fluorescent (CFL) lamps that lined the eastern façade of the Market, with 7-Watts LED bulbs. Kenny Samaroo, the lead engineer on the project, said that “…the LED technology is more efficient than CFL and the change out will result in almost 50 % reduction in energy consumed…”

Based on the existing Street Lights Tariff, the 12 solar powered street lights will result in annual energy savings of about 4,205 kWh or about $184,170 and 2,523 kg of avoided CO2. The computed simple payback, when compared to a similar installation using utility powered 80W LED lamps, is 6 years.

The second component of the intervention will result in annual energy savings of about 19,710 kWh, resultant annual cost savings of about $1,321,950 and 11,826 kg of avoided CO2. The computed simple payback is 1.6 years.

CEO of GEA, Dr. Mahender Sharma said that “… the project was completed at a total cost of  $9,611,000 and was in keeping with the Government of Guyana’s ‘Green Initiative’.