Carmanah Technologies Corporation has released another interesting product aimed at the transit industry: the i-PANEL illuminated advertising panel.

Transit shelter advertising panels, with their high visibility to both vehicle traffic and pedestrians, are one of the most popular forms of outdoor advertising and a key revenue source for outdoor advertising firms as well as transit agency partners. In North America alone, the ad panel market currently generates approximately $300M in annual revenues and is growing at a rate of 8% per year.

Illuminated advertising panels provide advertisers with market access 24 hours per day. Until now, one of the primary issues of an illuminated ad panel program was access to power, and the number of ad panels in a program that would be lighted was influenced by the possibility and/or cost effectiveness of a grid connection. Currently, less than 30% of the bus shelters in North America are fitted with illuminated ad panels.

Well don’t worry, with i-PANEL solar-powered light box technology, advertising agencies can now install illuminated ad panels on all shelters in their advertising programs, regardless of location. The end result being more advertising cluttering up the environment, but at least that advertising wont be burning fossil fuels to stay lit up. I guess its a trade off, more clutter, less co2.

i-PANELs can be easily retrofitted into any new or existing bus shelter. The company claims they can be installed in a matter of hours. A small benefit to the installer is that because you don’t have to hook up to the power grid, you don’t have to dig any holes, get any permits for electrical connection, and you don’t have to worry about anyone electrocuting themselves. The long-life, ultra-bright LEDs are shock proof, vibration proof and operate for up to 10 years without replacement. In summary, installation costs are a fraction of those of conventional panels and maintenance and operational costs are virtually zero.

When compared to the environmental cost of running a grid-connected ad panel, Carmanah’s solar-powered i-PANEL light box technology can save approximately 7,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

In addition, the flexible design of an i-PANEL illuminated advertising panel enables it to be grid-tied anywhere power is readily available, so its solar panels can contribute any surplus power generated to the grid, further reducing the dependence on fossil fuel-based electricity. In areas of favorable sunlight, it may also be possible to sell clean, surplus power back to the utility through net metering.