In partnership with PlanLED, the St. Louis Cardinals are installing GigaTera’s LED sports lighting at Busch Stadium. The installation will be completed ahead of the 2019 season. The Stadium though has received high marks in the recent MLB evaluations, but the recent advances in LED lighting technology offers an opportunity to further improve the quality of the field lights in turn helping to reduce operating and maintenance cost.
Planled’s mission is to improve human life while reducing carbon. By changing the focus of energy projects from sustainability mandate to human factors, the company can communicate a compelling business case for all lighted environments.
The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball as a member club of the National League Central division. Busch Stadium has been their home ballpark since 2006.
The new lighting system is designed to have a life expectancy of 30 years. The Cardinals will see a considerable reduction in the labor required to maintain the lights and up to a 60% reduction in the energy required to operate the field lights.
The project began last November with the removal of 680MH sports lights, which are now being replaced by sports LED lights manufactured by GigaTera, while Sachs Electric is performing the installation tasks. The project is expected to be complete by mid-March, which will make Busch Stadium one of 18 MLB ballparks that will have LED lighting for the 2019 season.
The new lighting system will provide a quality of light that will be 90% of the quality of natural light with improved uniformity while reducing shadows and glare. This will make the lighting more visually comfortable for players and guests.
The advanced nature of the LED lights will also improve the broadcast quality for viewers at home since the system is HD compatible and 4K ready. Ultra-slow motion replays will no longer have the light flickering that is visible using MH lights. The system is capable of producing theatrical lighting effects and themes that can be programmed for home run celebrations and other special events.
