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Smart City Solar Poles deployed by the City of Darwin using PowerStack off-grid vertical solar.
Location: Various locations across Darwin City including the Malak Obstacle Course, with further systems used as mobile units around the City’s roadways.
Product: 5 x M50 (5m) PowerStack system running Avigilon AVA Quad Cameras
Date/Year: 2022
Project Partners: City of Darwin, Secure People providing integration services, using AVA Avigilon (Now a Motorola Solutions company) hardware, Top End Race providing installation service.
Project: The City of Darwin was looking to deploy technology that would provide access to data insights on how people used public spaces. This technology would ideally be installed at various public infrastructure sites including recreational areas and roadways.
The aim was to see how different users of multi-purpose spaces use the facilities and interact with one another. Accessing these data insights would enable the City to better plan, deploy, and maintain public facilities to enhance residents and visitors experience.
Challenge: The City were looking for a reliable powered solution that would enable environment monitoring (including features like object counting and classification), that could be installed quickly and efficienltly.
Ideally this solution would be sustainably powered if possible, and could be partially mobile. This was so the smart city technology could be moved from one location to another easily, with minimal disruption.
The solution: The City of Darwin engaged integrator, Secure People, to provide a design and install this. They chose to use PowerStack’s 100% off-grid solar poles as a way to provide green power for the smart city technologies.
Two innovative solutions were created. The first was a fixed installation at the Malak Obstacle Course, which used the PowerStack pole to run an AVA Quad camera and complementary software. This was installed using a concrete-free foundation. The foundation meant the pole system could be installed by a small team, without waiting for concrete to set. This minimised the disruption to the surrounding environment.
The second solution was a ‘mobile’ version of the PowerStack smart city solar pole. This was also running an AVA Quad camera, counting and identifying vehicles, pedestrian space users and active transport participants in real-time. This second solution used a moveable concrete plinth footing so it could be relocated at will.
The solutions deployed Secure People and the City of Darwin are not simply about object counting. They provide invaluable data insight on how different types of users engage with a space at each time of day and how those trends change over longer time periods.
These insights allow the City team to improve processes around predictive maintenance, safety and security measures and seasonal staff resourcing. All of which enhances experience for people using the space and helps the City run more efficiently.
”This solution helped us sustainably and efficiently deploy monitoring technology to understand how our community interacts with public spaces. Our goal was to create a more connected, safer and greener space, and this technology helped us get there. ”
PowerStack’s vertical, modular design enables maximised sun capture for each location. The vertical panels mean the pole is harvesting sunlight from sun up to sun down. Unlike traditional flat angle solar, which only captures during high sun hours, and is vulnerable to overheating causing a loss of efficiency during this time.
This also gives the poles a sleek aesthetic, with no bulky external components. This means they are at home in both rural and suburban environments , or in urban spaces like in this project. That added to the cable free, ‘grid-independent’ nature of the poles enabled them to be installed exactly where they were needed in the Darwin project, and meant they could be easily moved as part of the ‘mobile’ solution.
Finally, the PowerStack system is fully ‘tech and brand agnostic’ so integrators, specifiers and end user teams can have real oversight and choice on what they run off the system. From the camera type and function, to VMS, communications router and even the mounting style, the PowerStack systems have been designed with flexbility in mind.
For more information on how the PowerStack systems are designed and what you can power with them, please GET IN TOUCH. For a full list of PowerStack suppliers, see the ‘Where to Buy’ page.
PowerStack is proud to work in collaboration with the technology brands and devices we work with, and everyone else across the project from the integrator, to end users and distribution or channel partners.
PowerStack vertical solar can be used to power a number of different technologies including security cameras, IoT sensors, lighting, help points and wi-fi networks. Aside from reliable power supply, vertical solar has numerous benefits for both the integrator and the end user. Here are a few of the key features that made PowerStack a standout for this project.
Reliable green energy that enables power supply in areas that grid power can’t reach. Providing 24/7 uptime, totally off-grid.
Rugged, weatherproof design with shatterproof, fire resistant, glassless solar panels.
Flexible modular, integrated design is technology and brand agnostic, giving the end user full choice.
No heavy machinery required, installed in under an hour by a 2 person team. Winches down for easy maintenance.
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