Eurogate-Blog

LEDs are energy efficient, require little maintenance and have a high lifespan. Several test projects using environmentally friendly LED lamps were carried out in both Bremerhaven and Hamburg. The aim in the mid-term is to make LEDs the standard lamps at the two terminals.

To achieve this goal, both sites intensively exchanged information and experiences, and are now profiting from the insights they’ve gained. “We will change the appearance of EUROGATE Container Terminal Bremerhaven (CTB) for many years to come,” says Jens Greulich, Director Technology Coordination/Projects, who is leading the project for switching to LED lighting. Bremerhaven will be the first container terminal in the northern range of ports between Antwerp and Hamburg which is changing over completely to LED lamps for lighting the terminal areas. According to the plan, the entire CTB will be equipped with energy-saving lamps at the end of the year.

The work required to achieve this by then, as listed by Jens Greulich: 2,048 floodlights have to be disassembled and 1,611 installed, with these tasks taking place at heights up to 45 metres. All in all, 3 million square metres of open space is being converted. When the project started two years ago, only just a handful of manufacturers were able to provide such blanket-coverage LED lighting with the required spacing between light poles. However, this has changed over the course of the project. Today, more and more manufacturers are able to satisfy the requirements.

In Bremerhaven, together with the Works Council, the decision was taken to use Philips products. The criteria considered during the selection process were the colour reproduction and the even distribution of light, as well as the energy footprint. Jens Greulich: “The fact that we can reduce our energy consumption by more than 50 percent was still wishful thinking in 2015. Today, it is reality.” The terminal lighting consumes approximately 8 million kilowatt hours per year in Bremerhaven. After blanket coverage of LED lighting, it is estimated to be only 2.6 million kilowatt hours.

The existing lighting has been disassembled since the end of July 2017. By the end of the year, the work at the terminal will be completed. In addition to the energy savings and lower carbon emissions, a further advantage of LEDs is added safety. Thanks to the significantly better colour reproduction, the light will be white in future. This ensures a more contrast-rich visibility, which, in turn, enables the human eye to identify objects better three-dimensionally. The change of the light’s colour also means that the appearance of the container terminal at night will change.

In the meantime, Jens Greulich is already planning the next step. In contrast to conventional sodium- vapour lighting, LEDs offer significantly better options for controlling and dimming. In other words, only those lights can be switched on which are actually needed.

The EUROGATE Terminal in Hamburg also wants to change over to LED lighting. Container crane 305 has been outfitted with LED lamps since December 2016, which to date have only consumed a quarter of the energy previously needed for electric lighting. As a result of the good experience gained by switching to LED, the stakeholders in Hamburg have expressed their intent to outfit all container cranes with LED lighting.

Andreas Schruth, Director Energy and Environmental Management at EUROGATE, explains: “Not only are the energy savings enormous, the quality of the light is visibly better too. Drivers of both container cranes and straddle carriers confirm this. On top of that, the change in the light spectrum, which does not include ultra-violet, draws in fewer insects. This means that the unnaturally high concentration of insects can be reduced. That is why we will be starting with the retrofit of other cranes in Hamburg by the end of 2017 at the latest.” Andreas Schruth goes on to add that all Hamburg container cranes will be outfitted with LED lamps by the time the project is over. All terminal areas will also be outfitted with LEDs.

In autumn this year, four light poles with LED lamps will be installed at the Hamburg container terminal. They will be near container cranes 301 to 304 and illuminate a space of more than 40,000 square metres. “We hope to record similarly good results as in Bremerhaven during the test phase,” says Andreas Schruth. Following the test phase, a decision will be made in Hamburg about implementing LEDs across the terminal.