Let there be light: Solar lighting to be considered for Longford town

There were calls for Longford County Council to explore replacing some or all of its traditional lighting with solar powered lighting following Storm Éowyn.

Fianna Fáil Cllr Martin Monaghan submitted a motion and insisted solar power would ensure that during outages there was adequate lighting to facilitate the safety of residents, road users and people using the town.

"We have spoken about how the storm affected people, to me it might be simplistic but if we put in solar lights we will have lights there without taking it off the grid," he added.

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Cllr Monaghan stated that a lot of GAA grounds and some in county Longford now had solar powered lighting and it was a viable option.

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The motion was supported by Councillor Sean Mimnagh and Councillor David Cassidy.

Director of Services Barbara Heslin said they had considered the motion and consulted with their public lighting contractor about the viability of the proposal.

"The main issue with solar powered lighting replacing public lighting for the main streets and the national roads is the amount of power required to operate a lantern over extended winter nights and the long winter season that we have," she said. "In theory this is possible but it requires a large solar array to capture the sunlight and considerable batteries to store the light."

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However, Ms Heslin stated to hold this in place specially designed lighting columns are required and it would not be a matter of adapting their current lighting but "completely removing the existing system and replacing it" with an entirely new system.

"In addition the ongoing maintenance cost of solar powered lighting is considerably higher than the existing lighting and the issue of batteries is commonplace and the lifespan of batteries is limited.

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"Poorer weather over the winter reduces the capture of solar power and with colder temperatures the battery capacity reduces dramatically," she added.

Ms Heslin said for all the reasons mentioned solar power lighting was not currently a viable alternative.

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