Home / Uses / Quiet power for a glow worm cave attraction

Lighting the path without disturbing the glow worms

Glow worm caves and grottos welcome visitors in the dark, with only the faintest path lights. This page looks at quiet power for the attraction around the cave, and where the system must never go.

Never inside the cave

Hydrogen equipment belongs outdoors, in open air with good ventilation. It would never be installed inside a cave or any enclosed underground space. The system would sit in a ventilated enclosure at the surface, well away from the entrance, and send power down to the path lighting and pumps through cabling. That siting rule comes first, before anything else about the attraction is planned.

What it would keep running

Dim cave path lighting
Drainage or boat ride pumps
Visitor centre ticket desk
Cafe fridges and coffee machine
Toilets and car park lights

Low light, low load, high stakes

Glow worms are disturbed by bright light, so cave lighting is dim, low and carefully aimed. Those lights draw very little. Pumps for drainage or for a boat ride, a visitor centre with a ticket desk, a cafe, a gift shop and toilets make up the larger loads, and together they sit within 15 kW.

In an outage, the most important thing is getting visitors out of the cave safely. With the battery and inverter in UPS mode, the path lighting never goes dark, so nobody is left standing in total darkness underground while staff fetch torches.

How it works →

The H2OME loop: an electrolyser splits water into hydrogen, the hydrogen is stored in a tank for weeks, a fuel cell turns it into electricity for your home, and the water returns to the loop.

No fumes, no noise

A diesel generator near a cave entrance risks exhaust drifting in and noise carrying through the chambers. The fuel cell has no engine and its by-product is water. Hydrogen is stored at 30 bar or less and keeps for weeks. Round trip efficiency is 30% or less, so it costs more than grid power, but it keeps the attraction safe and quiet.

Questions

Could the system go inside the cave?

No. Hydrogen equipment must be installed outdoors in well ventilated surroundings. It would sit at the surface away from the entrance, with power cabled down to the lights and pumps.

Will the lighting disturb the glow worms?

The system only supplies power. The lighting design itself, dim and carefully aimed, stays exactly as the attraction's operators and their advisors want it. Nothing changes about how the cave is lit.

What happens to visitors if the grid fails mid tour?

The battery and inverter switch over instantly, so path lighting stays on and guides can walk visitors out calmly. The fuel cell then carries the site from stored hydrogen, so the visitor centre can keep looking after people while they wait.

Elsewhere

Every use →

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