Edo installs solar-powered traffic lights in Benin City

Edo State government has installed solar-powered traffic lights in Benin City, the state capital.

The traffic lights, designed and installed by Atiode Solar Systems Limited, an indigenous company, are aimed to control the present chaotic state of traffic at strategic junctions in Benin City.

Speaking with Business Day in Benin City, chief executive officer of the company, Fred Atiomo, praised Governor Oserheimen Osunbor for giving his company the break it needed to be the first company to successfully install solar- powered traffic lights in the region.

Atiomo disclosed that the company was 100 percent Nigerian firm and second in Africa to a firm in South Africa, which has a considerable experience in the installation and maintenance of similar projects.

The chief executive officer, who stated that the solar-powered traffic lights was presently being hoisted in Benin City at Adesogbe/Airport road junction, by the Oba Palace, however noted that as a result of its renewable source of energy, which is gotten from the sun, the system was not subject to human distortions compared with hydro-electric or thermal energy.

According to him, under the pilot scheme the company would install and maintain for a period of two years various solar-powered traffic lights at strategic junctions in the state capital.

"The scheme also introduced solar- powered road markings and pedestrian crossing lights at the junction where the traffic lights are installed. For traffic lights, once they are switched on they can supply light uninterrupted as both the solar panels and the signal heads have longer lifespan of seven years or more due to the use of light emission diode (LED). The only maintenance they require is occasional cleaning of the solar panels," he stated.