Football Club PSV makes ‘the greenest choice’ with Philips

PSV and Philips celebrated their 110-year partnership last month. During the home match against N.E.C. from Nijmegen last Saturday 16 September, PSV further reinforced this collaboration with ‘the greenest choice’ for the lighting of their grass with Philips Horticulture LED luminaires from Signify, world leader in lighting and former Philips Lighting. The chosen lighting solution is sustainable, data-driven and fully automated to provide optimal grass quality while maximizing energy savings.

Until now, PSV was using traditional HPS-lamps in the 9 light rigs that are spread across the playing field. These lamps ensure adequate light exposure to the grass to remain in good condition, even throughout the dark season and in the shade areas of the stadium. Due to the high number of burning hours, on average about 20 hours a day in winter, the usage results in high energy consumption. Philips LED will be able to save up to 50% energy, at equal light level. The existing steel light rigs are still in good condition and can be reused by simply replacing the HPS by LED lamps.

Stadium Director Sjors van den Boogaart indicates that the improvement of the grass fits within the club's larger ambitions: "We are improving the quality of the Philips Stadium, which also includes better grass. Our ambition is a playing field in European top condition. Thanks to Signify's more sustainable LED light installation, we will both have a better grass quality and prevent unnecessary energy losses. Earlier this year, we already converted 1 light rig to Philips LED, and the results look promising."

De Enk Groen & Golf takes care of the grass maintenance at the Philips Stadium and will further shape this challenging grass ambition in the coming years. They are confident in PSV's choice to work with the Philips LED luminaires from Signify: "Both the LED luminaires and accompanying heat panels can be dimmed independently for each light rig, allowing us to create the right balance for optimal grass growth under all conditions and at any time of the year. In addition, based on sensors and measured daylight, we can also control the LED lighting per light rig for even more consistent grass quality."

Dick Lek of VTI Horst, a hortiLED partner of Signify, will take care of the installation of the full system. Via an integral dashboard all information will be made visible to the users, who will also have remote access. In this way, the system now fulfills all specific requests of PSV to enable grass growth and offers the club many more possibilities to further expand the system with other functionalities in the future.

Knowing that the use of LED for grass growth in stadiums is a relatively new field of expertise, the parties involved have agreed to further innovate together in the coming period. Udo van Slooten, Business Leader of Philips Horticulture LED Solutions emphasizes the possibilities: "Building on 87 years of knowledge in the horticulture sector at Signify, we are enormously proud of this latest addition to our portfolio: a LED solution developed specifically for grass in stadiums. Together with PSV, we continue to innovate and lead the way in light and sustainability to achieve the best grass quality, now and in the future."

As a symbolic gesture to underline the club's 110th anniversary and joint sustainability goals, Signify donated 1100 sustainable LED lights to the PSV Foundation. 

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