Product Features
Product Features
All Solar Bollard Lighting® product releases are original design innovations, our brand reputation was built on consistently delivering only the highest quality, premium industrial grade solar lighting products available.
The complexity of our design expertise, and our unique innovations have made the multi award-winning Solar Bollard Lighting® brand the dominant solar lighting innovator consistently over the last two decades.
SBL design specifications are rigorously assessed through NATA accredited laboratories right here in Australia so we can stand behind our products capabilities with confidence and ensure that they meet all necessary quality assurance and performance standards.
That is why we offer our world-leading 10-year product and performance guarantee. And yes, that does include the battery and pole/stem.
Brighter for Longer
To ensure we can achieve consistent full power illumination from sunset to sunrise that meets your needs 365 days of the year, our sales network complete an initial design assessment of the actual project site to check the balance of the Power In vs Power Out equation is correct
This design criteria depends on:
- The winter solstice profile of the specific location.
- The amount of snow or rain that might fall in different seasons.
- The level of shade at the whole installation site.
We use this assessment data to choose one of our nine power designs capable of handling the battery load in a worst-case scenario, and to guarantee the battery is fully replenished each day.
Most competitors who utilise dimming for battery conservation produce a one design suits all applications off the shelf mass produced solar bollard light that is poorly designed from the beginning to compete with similar products from other companies within their region of manufacture.
Here is a brief explanation of how they have already compromised their solar bollard lights performance and longevity from the start before it even ends up in a location where it will eventually fail to perform:
- by drawing more current from the battery than can be replenished during the recharge cycle to
- show they are brighter than their competitor and attract the consumers’ attention, but it isn’t the same illumination output in real operational life.
- they use a motion sensor to run in a dim mode and switch to a bright mode when motion is detected,
- using a smaller undersized battery which reduces product cost
But how does this one design, that supposedly suits all applications, off the shelf, mass produced solar bollard light account for:
- all geographical locations as runtimes and solar irradiation levels vary dramatically between regions
- varying levels of shading from trees and buildings at the installation site,
- any seasonal snowfall or monsoonal weather.
- ghost full power activation by animals, birds, insects attracted to light, passing vehicles, or tree branches blowing in the wind.,
- illumination output reducing in both bright and dim modes as the battery level is depleted
Yet many of these manufacturers claim their poorly specified solar bollard light battery will
- last for over 10 years or
- 6000 cycles which is 16.44 years and totally misleading,
- plus, they either do not warrant the battery at all, or only for 1 year.
Charges in the Shade
The world’s first a stand-alone solar light that illuminates at full power from dusk until dawn, 365 days of the year, in locations that are fully shaded by trees or buildings, was innovated and only available from us.
This standalone solar lighting solution is especially suited to locations such as hotel foyer entries, city street with tall building all around, or where trenching to lay cabling for mains-powered lighting is not possible due to the environmental impacts it would cause.
Our first installation was in Albany, Western Australia in 2018, in a highly dense vegetative eco habitat to prove to us we had the power equation right for these types of installation conditions. The trial pushed the SBL2 Series to its limits and these solar bollard lights continue to work at peak efficiency and remain lighting compliant still to this day.
Can Fully Submerse
The world’s first and only IP68 submersible solar bollard light was engineered by us to sustain a waterproof resistance to saltwater corrosion integrity throughout its long operational life requirement.
Our design was rigorously assessed through a NATA accredited laboratory in Australia and certified well above the minimum IP68 requirement of 1m depth for 30 mins, we tested our SBL2 Series at 3m depth for 24 hours.
We had to ensure the SBL2 Series design was suitable for coastal regions that would be exposed to sea level rise from climate change, and natural disasters such as flooding or tidal surges from hurricanes or tsunamis.
The SBL2 Series was a game-changing solar light that when all other solar powered bollard and grid powered lights had failed, the SBL2 Series would continue to light up the night, every night, even under water.
Guaranteed Long Life
When investing in solar lighting, we understand a sustainable and long-term positive outcome is expected.
For 20 years we have been manufacturing industrial grade solar lighting used in commercial projects with design and product quality, and capabilities, far exceeding all our competitors, and second to none. This ensures our customers get a long-term partner and product support backed by a world leading 10-year product and performance warranty that also includes the battery and our Australian made pole.
Unlike imported competitor products who have been in the solar lighting space for a few years copying everyone else from Asia, they offer a low-grade copy product with no capital design investment, and a
- warranty term of up to 5 years at best, if it lasts that long
- either exclude the battery and bollard pole or offer a one (1) year warranty on these components
- or to avoid warranty claims, close their business every few years, then start new one with a similar name or brand, making the same products, without any historical warranty claims to cover.
Only a genuine Solar Bollard Lighting® product has solarbollardlighting.com moulded into the dome top cover.
Australian Made
Solar Bollard Lighting® is based in the City of Moreton Bay in Queensland, also known as the sunshine state.
Australia has produced great innovations such as Wi-Fi technology, Google Maps, the black box flight recorder, heart pacemaker, ultrasound scanner and the electric drill. In 2004, founder and designer Mike Arieni had the idea of an integrated all-in-one solar light mounted to the top of a pole, he joined a long list of Australian inventors.
The first-generation solar bollard light was made in Taiwan up to 2009, with manufacturing for the next generations moved to Australia in early 2010.
Solar Bollard Lighting® is committed to not only meeting but setting the world’s best standards as the only solar lighting manufacturer licensed by Australian Made Campaign Limited to use the Australian Made logo in accordance with the AMAG Logo Code of Practice: Licensee ID number: 7739.
If a product is not licensed to use the AMAG logo by AMCL, then it is “NOT” Australian Made, and only a genuine Solar Bollard Lighting® product has solarbollardlighting.com moulded into the dome top cover, so beware of imitations.
Recyclable Sustainable
Not all solar lights are similar in design or have the same environmental sustainability. Only product exposure to market, the value of time, and industry knowledge offers the expertise required to achieve a more sustainable product outcome.
With over 20 years focused only on solar lighting design and manufacturing Mike Arieni founder and designer has led the innovation curve with his unique original product design innovations improving performance, design capabilities, and sustainability from one model to the next.
Some of our original 2005-2009 GENI solar bollard lights that have been maintained are still in operation today due to our proven electronic circuit design longevity which controls all functionality of our solar power system. From this original GENI model operational data, we were able to research, discover, then implement new materials and components into our future solar light product designs to increase durability and recyclability.
The SBL2 Series our current release, is the only stand-alone solar powered lighting product in the world that:
- is submersible, so will continue to operate when completely submersed.
- This means will not require replacement, reducing environmental impacts due to removing of damaged and failed assets
- will operate in fully shaded locations without any direct sunlight (correct power model must be specified) and illuminate at full power all night then recharge each day.
- This means locations needing to be illuminated such as eco habits will not be disturbed or damaged by trenching to lay cables for grid connected power.
- has a solar powered luminaire that is 100% recyclable with an expected life cycle up to 15 years, battery included.
- This means at end-of-life cycle, only a replacement SBL luminaire is required.
- This means once the new luminaire has arrived, the old luminaire is packaged in the same carton (postage pre-paid) and sent back to SBL to be disassembled for recycling, repurposing under our Product Stewardship Program (Australia only currently)
- This means OPEX is reduced as compared to competitor products that require light and pole asset purchase, removing and reinstalling, and disposal costs of old asset.
- has an extruded aluminium pole (not die-cast) with an in-situ operational life exceeding 25 years in most instances and correct mounting type to suit location.
- This means OPEX is reduced as compared to competitor products that require light and pole asset purchase, removing and reinstalling, and disposal costs of old asset.
- is backed by a world leading 10-year product and performance warranty that includes the battery and our Australian made pole.
- can be repaired if using our SBLV2 models which has the option to be returned to SBL and the power level decreased if shading starts to occur at site more than originally design for, or solar panel efficiency declines to offset renewable energy requirements for recharging the battery.
In our new SBLV2 model we can modify the power draw lower if shading starts to occur at site more than originally designed for, or solar panel efficiency declines as it ages to offset for recharging of the battery.
Vandal Resistant
Highest impact resistance rating (IK10) was first brought to market by Solar Bollard Lighting® with our SBL Series solar bollard light released in 2012 as the world’s first IK10 vandal-resistant solar bollard light. Our design was rigorously assessed through a NATA accredited laboratory in Australia and certified.
Bollard lights are generally easy targets for vandals because they are highly visible and accessible in public areas. It can be an expensive ongoing exercise to continually replace them.
If they’re connected to mains power, damage can expose wiring which also exposes the public to the danger of electrocution. Our world-first innovation of the integrated all-in-one solar-powered bollard light in 2004 ended that risk.
When designing the SBL2 Series, we needed to increase its impact resistance because this new product would also be submersed in flood-prone locations. We improved our injection moulding tool to ensure we had a heavier-duty luminaire that would be tough enough to sustain impacts from floating debris in rapidly flowing floodwater.
We assessed the upgraded design’s impact capability in our factory using a 3kg (6.6lbs) sledgehammer. We were only satisfied it was ready for production when it could sustain these high-level impact forces without any damage to the luminaire.
Time has proven that vandals have rarely succeeded in damaging our solar bollard lights, resulting in extremely low replacements. No product installed in a public place will ever be vandal proof.
For example, a product is vandalised when:
Renewable Clean Energy
Powered free by the sun
Solar Bollard Lighting® has been at the forefront of design and innovation of standalone lighting products powered by renewable clean energy from the sun for two decades, long before solar lighting had evolved, or climate change had become a hot political topic.
As a renewable source of power, solar energy has an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating climate change, which is critical to protecting humans, wildlife, and ecosystems.
Energy provided by the sun is a reliable and consistent energy source, and solar power is much more sustainable and it’s free.
To create the same amount of light generated by 100 x SBL2 Series solar bollard lights over 10 years, using energy from the grid requires:
80 units x 25watt grid powered LED bollard x 12 hour per night average = 24 kWh per day
24 kWh x 365 days = 8,760 kWh per annum
8,760 kWh x 10 years = 87,600 kWh x #0.527 ÷ 1000 = 46.16t of Co2.
Unlike lights connected to the grid, our SBL2 Series is a standalone lighting product that has minimal environmental impact and cost when being installed, as there are no requirements
- for connection to the power network
- possible transformer to reduce high voltage down to a useable voltage
- for a power distribution board at site
- to dig trenches for power cables and conduit,
- labour cost for a qualified electrician
And if the grid goes down our SBL2 Series solar powered lights will keep on illuminating the area which is important in events of natural disasters for emergency services and a feeling of public safety.
# based on Australian data 2021 – 526.9 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour
Multi Award Winning
Solar Bollard Lighting® is driven by a desire to be at the forefront of sustainable lighting innovation. We strive to be the first to innovate unique and sustainable lighting products, and lead lighting stewardship forward into a circular economy world that amplifies our brand, as great for society.
In 2016, the SBL Series lighting industry recognition at the Australian Smart Lighting Summit, winning the “Most Innovative Product” award
In 2020, the SBL2 Series achieved a “Gold Award” for product design at the Good Design Awards.
In 2022, the SBL2 Series achieved lighting industry recognition at the National Excellence in Lighting Awards, winning the “Overall Innovation” award.
In 2023, Solar Bollard Lighting® was recognised by @ AuManufacturing as one of “Australia’s Top 50 Innovative Manufacturers”.
These values have achieved our brand many Business, Innovation & Exporting Excellence nominations and accolades such as,
Fall Safe Design
Our fall safe design reduces or prevents the possibility of harm falling on or colliding with our solar lights.
As our solar bollard lights are installed in public places at low mounting heights where children often play and run, such as parks and playgrounds, we designed them with safety in mind using a symmetrical shape that removes sharp edges which is more suitable, as it reduces the force and damage of the impact, and not cause injury to children.