Diesel or Solar for Temporary Site Lighting? Solera Ran a 30-Month Comparison
Temporary lighting on a large construction site is easy to treat as a rental line item. On a long build it is a real budget decision, and Solera put numbers to it in a recent comparison.
The site in the example is a multi-year data center project with parking, laydown, and storage areas of about 860 by 1,350 feet, roughly 1.16 million square feet, with a lighting target of 0.5 to 1.0 maintained footcandles.
Option one: diesel light towers
Option one is the familiar answer: diesel generator-powered LED light towers, rented. Solera's example uses ten towers over 30 months. Rental runs about $270,000, fuel about $104,000 per year for the site, and maintenance $60,000 to $80,000. Total for the 30 months: $590,000 to $610,000. Diesel towers are reliable in any weather, easy to scale, and widely available, but they bring constant refueling, engine service and downtime, noise and emissions, and the logistics and safety concerns that come with handling fuel on site.
Option two: solar area lights
Option two is solar area lights: pole-mounted panels and batteries, no generator. Solera's layout uses a mix of 6,000-lumen (SL-SAL-60L) and 10,000-lumen (SL-SAL-100L) area lights on approximately 110 poles, for a total investment of around $267,200. Operating cost is close to zero, there are no fuel deliveries or generator maintenance, and the fixtures can be reused on the next project or resold. The trade-offs are the higher upfront cost, dependence on sunlight and battery sizing, and the planning needed to place poles.
Solera's conclusion is that for sites running a year or longer, solar saves more than $300,000 on this example and removes a set of daily logistics that never shows up on the rental quote.
Parking lots, and a free layout
Solera has a companion guide on solar lighting best practices for parking lots that is worth a read for municipal, retail, and industrial campus work: zoning footcandles by area, mapping for safety and security, and setting the lighting schedule before the first pole goes in.
One more thing worth knowing: Solera provides free lighting layouts. Send us a site plan and we will coordinate with Solera's team on a footcandle layout with fixture selection, pole placement, mounting heights, and coverage, at no cost and no obligation. If you have a long-running project in North Texas, Oklahoma, or Arkansas, contact your Electra Sales representative and we will get it started.
Solera is a Light Efficient Design brand, represented by Electra Sales across North Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Reach us at electrasales.net.
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