SOLTECH Introduces UL 8801 ALL-IN-ONE Solar Fixtures

SOLTECH, a leading commercial solar LED lighting manufacturer, has announced that it is the first North American manufacturer to achieve UL listing for an ALL-IN-ONE design, off-grid solar light fixture, under UL’s new 8801 solar luminaire outline of investigation.  The SUNLIKE Series solar area light fixtures received the UL 8801 listing.

SUNLIKE solar light fixtures reduce the total cost of ownership and deliver high performance. This fully integrated LED solar area light is designed for commercial applications, in different lumen outputs, up to 9000 lumens.

SUNLIKE provides superior quality light over a greater area. The integrated solar array, battery, and LED fixture simplifies mounting, for fast and easy installation. SUNLIKE fixtures eliminate trenching, cabling, and electricity costs.  They also can:

• reduce liability for municipalities and other government agencies, by increasing public safety,
• reduce a facility’s carbon footprint for increased sustainability,
• reduce the total cost of onsite installation and optimize the owner’s ROI, and
• prevent theft of copper wiring between luminaires.

Off-grid solar light fixtures have been available in the Northern American lighting market for over 20 years, with manufacturers combining photovoltaic cells, batteries, control gear, and LED components into a luminaire.  Until today, manufacturers could only claim that all their components are UL listed. While this is an important start, it doesn’t verify the safety of the interaction between the UL listed components.  SOLTECH approached UL requesting safety listing for a complete off-grid solar luminaire.  As a leading safety standards and certification body, UL investigated the potential hazards and risks of the interaction between solar luminaire components, especially between the battery and photovoltaic controller, and how to ensure thermal runaway in the batteries is prevented. 

Based on this research, UL published the first issue of UL 8801, Outline of Investigation for commercial grade Photovoltaic-Powered Luminaire Systems. SOLTECH was one of the first manufacturers that contributed input to the UL 8801 Outline of Investigation, for the U.S. and Canadian markets.

Leo Liao, CEO at SOLTECH stated, “We are proud to have worked with UL for several years, inspiring their creation of the UL 8801 Outline of Investigation, for solar luminaires.”  Liao added, “We anticipate UL 8801 to eventually become a fully-approved safety standard for solar luminaires, and we’re thrilled that SOLTECH’s SUNLIKE Series is the first product line to get safety listed to UL 8801.  This is one more example of SOLTECH’s leadership in solar luminaires.”

With increased interest in “green”, “renewables”, “climate change” (select your word of choice) as well as the potential of the government investing much more in climate control and renewables via the various infrastructure programs, it is expected that solar-related products will be a growth category … or at least a product category that more will express interest in.

Further, another target market is companies that emphasize ESG initiatives such as Turtle & Hughes and Southwire recently did. In Turtle’s case it is an internal initiative as well as an area that they can help their customers. In Southwire’s case they will be looking to invest more in environmental / sustainability initiatives to meet requirements of their new financing agreements.

• To learn more about SOLTECH’s solar LED products, click here.
• To find your local Soltech Lighting rep click here and then click on your state.