Panamá Maritime Authority has installed three new sector lights and towers to improve the navigation safety of ships coming into Bays of Manzanillo and Las Minas on Panama’s Atlantic coast.
The beacons, specifically constructed as marine aids to navigation, consist of a sector light on a 40-meter tower in Manzanillo and two sector lights on 15-meter and 35-meter towers in Las Minas. Two of the towers were installed on land and one of them on a piled structure over water. The tender issued by Panamá Maritime Authority was awarded to Delta 9, a local contractor, and Spanish company Almarin was subcontracted to the design and supply of AtoN, specifically the lights, towers and solar energy supply systems.
The towers are manufactured as segmented galvanized steel structures with internal access with an upper platform made of a GRP mesh floor, ensuring a spacious and safe space for technicians to work on the lights. The platforms are designed to support the solar array and the towers are equipped with internal battery banks. The design of the sector lights was carried out by Almarin according to IALA guidelines. The system works day and night, thus the power efficiency is key as the lights are solar powered: VLS46 Ultra LED sector lanterns have been selected for their high precision and low power consumption, even so each tower is equipped with 1000 W of solar power regulated by MTT solar regulators and 1000 AH battery banks.
In 2014, Almarin also built two 16-meter towers to mark the access channel of Manzanillo Bay.