Emirates National Oil Company, Dubai, UAE
The Service Station of the Future will serve the entire Expo 2020 fleet ahead of and during the six months of Expo 2020, and will subsequently serve members of the public at District 2020, as part of Expo’s lasting sustainable legacy after its doors close on March 31, 2022.
Background
To contribute to the Dubai Expo 2020 and celebrate the year of tolerance, the Government of Dubai’s ENOC (the Emirates National Oil Company) sought to demonstrate cutting edge sustainability in line with the Dubai Expo’s theme of the Ghaf tree.
The Challenge
With the Dubai 2020 Expo delayed against the backdrop of the global Covid-19 pandemic, the main challenge was logistics and remote collaboration. Overcoming this with mLIght’s can-do spirit of collaboration (and many Zoom calls), the remaining challenge was the demanding organic design constraints of the project.
Early on the Swerve was the obvious choice to meet the vision for the interior lighting but it still remained well outside the standard specifications of the existing Swerve range. The contractors were also concerned that installing continuous, curving light lengths, manufactured in modules overseas, would result in inevitable inconsistency in light output along the diffusers.
The gauntlet for mLight was clear: To identify where each section would start and finish and then package all the sections so that they could be safely shipped to Dubai.
The Solution
The design of this Swerve was indeed very complex as it required multiple parallel runs interconnected with diagonal joining sections and custom radius Y-shapes to form the complete grid pattern.
The shape was constructed from 44 sections that were individually hand built, fully assembled in the mLight production facility and tested. After being shipped to Dubai the on site contractor crew were delighted that after a quick 10-day installation their concerns around the modular design causing light leakage were unnecessary as the final results were beautiful, uninterrupted, seamless lengths of consistently diffused light.
The interior Swerve lighting also contributed to the high efficiency of the Service Station using far less energy than conventional fluorescent lighting, while also having the ability to modulate light output in response to the amount of daylight – known as daylight harvesting. This aided one of the clear goals of the service station project: to power the station with zero wastage and emissions.
“We appreciated the flexibility and proactive nature of the mLight team during the design stage and collaborative approach right through to completion. They worked with us to deliver on a challenging set of requirements and manufacture a truly unique and spectacular custom lighting solution that is now being showcased to the world.”
“It is a great honour to be recognised by the prestigious APEA award that acknowledges the very best in the downstream fuel industry. As a wholly-owned National Oil Company we are proud to represent the energy industry at a global scale with our participation at the world’s greatest show-Expo 2020 Dubai and this recognition reflects the efforts of ENOC’s team to bring alive the most innovative service station. With the service station of the future our vision was to lead as an example in the energy sector on how a service station can be sustainable, using multiple sources of energy.”
– His Excellency Saif Humaid Al Falasi, Group CEO ENOC
Existing Press:
- ENOC Group’s Service Station of the Future wins APEA award for Best New Retail Forecourt
- ECOC Service Station of the Future Feature – Video
- Service Station of the Future opens at Dubai Expo 2020 site | UAE news – Video
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