Innovative LED-technology can offer huge dividends in the airport illumination, reducing energy savings and maintenance costs for the airports in the Middle East region, according to lighting experts.

Many of these solutions are in the expansion mode defying recessionary trends in Europe and elsewhere, they said on the sidelines of the Airport Show-2012 which opened in Dubai on Tuesday.

Hella Induperm is currently exploring options of entering into potential partnerships in the region which is witnessing a growth surge despite recession woes elsewhere in the world, remarked Thomas Becker of German group Hella Industries.

This is the debut show for Hella Induperm this year after Hella had acquired the Danish lighting manufacturer Induperm in October last year.

Becker pointed out that while this was an explorative visit, they see a great potential for green lighting technology business in the region in general and in particular Dubai which is expected to see 98 million passengers and over four million tonnes of air freight pass through its airports by 2020.

“There is a lot going on in several of the region’s airports – be it Dubai World Central or Bahrain or Sharjah, or even new emerging markets like Egypt and Iraq. We would like to break into these markets and use this event as a kind of doorway to building a strong network here,” he stated.

Becker said that innovative LED technology offers a number of advantages, such as reduced power consumption, CO2 emissions and maintenance costs.

According to him, the power and maintenance costs for LED in-pavement lights can be reduced by up to 70 per cent compared to halogen lights, and CO2 emissions may be reduced by as much as 85 per cent.

The power of LED lights can be continuously regulated and they come in a broad palette including all the essential colours – white, green, yellow, blue and red, he explained.

The lighting systems, saidBecker, are designed with the lighting modules independent of their housings, making replacement especially straightforward.

Existing halogen lamps can be easily retrofitted for LED lighting units, because these have been designed to be adaptable to suit existing structures. All these lighting systems comply with international standards such as ICAO Annex 14, FAA and IEC.

In addition to the red and white LED Approach Lights, Hella’s LED Runway Centreline Lights also generated a lot of interest at the exhibition, with a number of versions specifically developed for runways and taxiways, such as the CAT III taxiway light (in green, yellow, red and blue), Rapid Exit Taxiway Indicator Lights, stop bar variants and a number of elevated types.-TradeArabia News Service