How lighting towers are helping to power the global data centre boom.

As the global appetite for AI, high‑speed connectivity and cloud computing continues to surge, data centres are becoming the backbone of the digital economy. These vast, energy‑intensive facilities are being established across Europe, North America, and Asia at an unprecedented speed. But behind the scenes at many sites, from excavation to commissioning, stands a fleet of humble light towers, that are making 24/7 progress possible.

Often overlooked, the humble light tower, and its ability to illuminate everything around it, has become indispensable to the construction of modern data centres, enabling round‑the‑clock work, improving safety, and supporting increasingly complex build schedules.

Of course, it’s not just data centres that are driving the demand for light towers. The ability to generate power, without access to the mains power grid makes them valuable in a range of different environments including construction sites, remote oil and gas rigs, emergency response, outdoor events and concerts, mining sites, film production and event parking, among many other things.

Regardless of the application or installation, customers expect a light tower to provide continuous, reliable illumination on demand with a minimum of user/operator attention and maintenance downtime. Light towers provide valuable light so as workers and equipment can continue to operate safely once it’s dark, but they need to be powerful, durable and fuel efficient, so as productivity is not impacted.

Light towers shine a light on continuous construction work

With the demand for global data centres rising rapidly, providers are under increasing pressure to deliver new facilities in 12–18 months, far faster than traditional construction timelines.

To try and meet these timelines, construction work at many sites is being undertaken 24/7, which is where light towers come in, as they enable the site to extend its productive working hours into the night.

Light towers are tall structures which are powered by a generator set – often fitted with a Perkins® 400 Series – providing electricity to the lights above, enabling them to shine brightly enough to illuminate a large area, regardless of how dark it may be.

This means construction can safely continue overnight to help keep projects on schedule, with tasks such as continuous concrete pours, which are essential for large foundations able to take place, as well as building construction and the installation of electrical and mechanical systems.

Without reliable illumination, these accelerated build programmes simply wouldn’t be feasible, as the use of light towers enables speed, safety and security.

Perkins shines a line on light towers

Many light towers in operation around the world are fitted with a Perkins 400 Series; a proven family of engines designed to meet global emissions standards. The models are particularly suited to equipment such as light towers, where power from a small package size is key.

The 400 Series range offers a variety of ratings and configurations that can be tailored to meet specific needs, with low noise levels, low fuel consumption and long maintenance intervals also popular with owners and operators. The Perkins engine range is backed by a highly experienced global product support and service network, operating in 184 countries, to keep each power solution running productively.

Keeping job sites bright

U.S. based Allmand uses Perkins 1.1 litre engines in its Night-Lite™ V-Series®, Night-Lite Pro II® V and LD Series light tower line, to deliver one of the brightest light towers in its class.

Want to know more? Read why Allmand chooses Perkins power for its light towers here.