Corbould Park a model for energy efficient lighting
Mon 29 June 2009
Marcia De Bartolo, Journalism
Corbould Park racecourse has lit up the sky every Saturday night for the past 14 weeks, with nearly 2 million watts of light.
The $7.2 million Corbould Park lighting system, funded by Queensland Racing, was christened in February this year when the Sunshine Coast Turf Club (SCTC) opened its first season of Saturday night race meetings.
The dazzling display resulted from 960 2kW lights mounted on 40 towers ranging from 20 to 40m in height.
Energex spokesman Michael Turner estimated that running two million watts of lighting for one hour would be equivalent to 2000 homes simultaneously running 10 of the old incandescent 100-watt light globes for the same amount of time, or 10 of the 20-watt energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs.
Mr Turner said the lights did use a lot of power and, although significant, the SCTC was like any other customer requiring supply.
Many other businesses such as manufacturers or mechanics used similar or even larger amounts of power, but in different ways, Mr Turner said.
Queensland Racing’s services manager Paul Brennan said the Saturday night meetings were only running until mid-July while the Clifford Park facility at Toowoomba underwent a major upgrade.
Mr Brennan said the club had to use diesel generators to power the lights while they waited for Energex to complete its power supply upgrade for the nearby industrial park.
“Although it is two million watts of light…we’ve actually spent extra money on the project by putting in the most energy efficient bulbs we could get,” Mr Brennan said.
Mr Brennan said that, instead of the old style floodlights that emitted light in many directions, smaller 2kW “green” lamps were chosen because they were so specific and controlled, resulting in no light ‘leakage’ and therefore no waste of light and power.
“It’s more lights and a greater cost to put them up, but it’s actually saving power and obviously better for the environment,” Mr Brennan said.
Mr Brennan said a man on a cherry picker spent about 400 hours making sure each of the 960 lights was exactly aligned to a specific dinner plate placed on the track.
Because the lights were so high, the only way they could be serviced or bulbs replaced was with a 40-tonne cherry picker.
A couple of lights had to be reconnected or realigned and, at $300-400 per hour, it was an expensive operation, Mr Brennan said.
“The biggest problem is the pelicans – they come and sit on the poles and the lights won’t be aligned, and they leave droppings on the front of the lights,” Mr Brennan said.
"We’re just monitoring them at the moment, but if they do become a problem, we’re looking at environmentally friendly ways to stop them from perching.
“We’re also looking at putting solar panels on as much roof space as we can at the club so we can put back into the grid maybe even more than we actually take out.”
Mr Turner said he was very encouraged to see Queensland Racing taking such a proactive approach to installing and running the lights in an efficient and environmentally sensitive way, and in managing what is a significant addition of load into the western Caloundra area.
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