Role of Solar/Hybrid Mobile Tower Lighting in Site Safety

Date: 19/01/26

Site lighting can be a high cost on a construction site. There’s the cost of fuel for diesel generators, the cost of generator hire and maintenance, as well as the cost of fuel delivery and keeping your generators topped up. 

Yet lighting is crucial for site safety and compliance, as well as productivity and site security. It is not an area where you can practically, or even legally, afford to compromise.

So how do you keep your site lit, your team and materials safe, and your company fully compliant, without incurring excessive costs to achieve that? This is the role of solar/hybrid mobile tower lighting from Think Hire.

In this article, we’ll take an in-depth look at the role of site lighting and see how you can cut the costs, without compromising on any of the benefits, by running your lighting on solar/hybrid power.

Protecting Your Site

Put simply, your team need to see what they’re doing in order to be able to do it safely. That means more than just providing a light; it means planning your site lighting carefully to ensure full visibility without shadows or dangerous dark spots. 

In addition to mobile tower lighting, which offers broad illumination of up to 2400m2 of space, Think Hire can supply a range of additional lighting units to fill in the gaps and avoid shadows, including the Baselight Eco 600 and K50 LED floodlighting. All of these units can be run on solar power, either directly from their own solar panels or using a solar/hybrid generator.

Protecting Your People

Site lighting is essential for personnel safety in a number of ways, including:

  • Safe operation of tools – providing sufficient illumination for the job to be seen clearly, and tools are operated safely

  • Safe movement on foot – avoiding trip hazards, cables, slippery surfaces and other dangers

  • Safe movement of plant and vehicles – ensuring drivers can see and be seen as they navigate your site

  • Clear sight of signage – with lighting, the displays true colours of warning signs for maximum effect

Protecting Your Equipment

Sadly, thefts from construction sites are a reality that every company has to deal with. According to a report by security experts BauWatch, two-thirds of UK construction sites saw an increase in crime in 2025, with 55% of the sites surveyed reporting two or more thefts from the site over the year. Allianz Cornhill Insurance estimate that losses run to over £800M per year.

A well-lit site, served by mobile tower lighting, can be a deterrent to thieves, making their illegal activities more obvious and their identities clearer on CCTV. It may not offer water-tight protection for your plant and equipment, but anything that makes thieves think twice and move on to a darker site will improve your security.

Protecting Your Company

Appropriate site lighting is mandated by the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. This states that employers are obliged to provide adequate lighting to ensure the safety of workers and their ability to conduct work effectively. 

If you fail to provide adequate lighting, and this results in accidents or injuries, then you could face prosecution and a significant fine, which in turn can lead to lengthy delays to your project and reputational damage to your company.

Protecting Your Bottom Line

With site lighting so important for so many reasons, it’s essential to find a way to deliver it as efficiently and as cost-effectively as possible. Solar/hybrid mobile tower lighting from Think Hire can help you to achieve this by cutting the operating costs of your lighting by up to 90%. Solar/hybrid site lighting saves money in so many ways, including:

  • Less fuel costs – with real life case studies showing over 90% reduction in fuel bills

  • Less maintenance – with no moving parts, solar/hybrid lights need less maintenance and repair

  • Less staff costs – with far lower requirements for refuelling generators, organising fuel deliveries or maintaining storage tanks and transfer equipment, solar hybrid generators involve far less work

The role of solar/hybrid mobile tower lighting is clear

When it comes to protecting your site, your equipment and your people, while also protecting your company and your profits, the role of solar/hybrid mobile tower lighting from Think Hire couldn’t be clearer.

To find out more about the many benefits of solar/hybrid mobile tower lighting, and the rest of the Think Hire environmentally friendly lighting range, get in touch with our expert team today. 

Frequently Asked Questions

A. Yes. Solar panels use light, not sunshine, to generate power. That means they work even on the grey cloudy days we get so often in the winter months.

A. Hybrid systems come with a back-up generator that kicks in whenever the battery storage dips below a set level. This means you’re never without power for site lighting, even on the shortest, darkest days.

A. Yes. LED lights offer instant-on capability (no warm-up time), reduce shadows through better light spread, and feature anti-glare technology to prevent blinding workers or drivers. 

A. Yes. Since hybrid generators only need their diesel back-up part of the time, they produce less noise for the same power. Hybrid lighting generators can be configured to run silently through the night if charged during the day.


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