Sangachal Visitor Centre Azerbaijan

Inspired by a BP-sponsored energy gallery at the Science Museum in London, the Sangachal Visitor Centre in Azerbaijan was designed to help young people learn about energy-related issues in an interesting and engaging way whilst telling the story of oil and gas developments in Azerbaijan over the last ten years.

Situated 20 miles south of Azerbaijan’s capital city, Baku, this specially-built triangular visitor centre faces the Caspian Sea and the Oil Terminal. The terminal forms part of the long-term Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline project, which is responsible for transporting crude petroleum 1,110 miles from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil field in the Caspian to the Mediterranean.

Baku borders the Caspian Sea and is located on the Apsheron Peninsula, with Iran to the south and Russia to the north. It is known as the “region of eternal fires” because of its devotion to the sacred act of fire worshipping, a tradition that began some 2,600 years ago as a result of natural gas flares around the Caspian basin.

Forward-thinking consulting engineers Hoare LEA, approached PublicScreen and Lightsystem to evaluate, recommend and manage the installation with the contractors.

Given that energy efficiency was a key part of what the visitor centre was offering, LED was the obvious choice for the external lighting. Other issues were that the lighting units needed to be fitted in a particularly hostile environment, with extremes of heat and cold guaranteed. Delivery of product requiring a low level of maintenance was also a major consideration. In addition, the product selected would have to provide the highest performance.

After evaluating numerous product alternatives, PublicScreen concluded that the best product for this project was the ChromaBatten 200 from LED luminaire manufacturer Pulsar Light of Cambridge.

The 42 ChromaBatten 200s are each fitted with 24 x 1 Watt red, 24 x 3 Watt green and 24 x 3 Watt blue. These provide a total output of 168 LED watts per ChromaBatten, to gave the punch required to light the extensive area. All units had an ingress protection level of IP65 to ensure that hostile weather conditions would not disrupt the display.

Brief: Provide building exterior illumination capable of reproducing the corporate colour scheme in a very remote and hostile environment.

Commission: London Science Museum Solutions - www.nmsi.ac.uk

Lighting Design: Hoare Lea Consulting Engineers - www.hoarelealighting.com

LED Lighting: PublicScreen and Lightsystem - www.publicscreen.co.uk

Lighting Equipment: 42 Pulsar ChromaBatten 200’s - www.pulsarlight.com

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For further information, please contact any member of the the Pulsar sales network. We are always glad to help.