Titan’s Environmental Benefits
Titan poles can offer significant environmental benefits to concerned distribution utilities. Here’s how:
Titan poles, using inert materials to replace wood, both ease pressures on native growth timbers and reduce toxic chemical usage. Standard Australian practice since the origins of public electricity distribution, urban and rural, has traditionally been based on eucalyptus poles. Eucalyptus, durability class 1 can have a lifetime of over 100 years but, with growing demand, increasingly rare native timbers have come under environmental protection; with shorter lived species now more the norm for distribution service.
Plantation timbers are even less satisfactory although reasonable life spans are achieved through copper chrome arsenate (CCA) impregnation, giving the light green colouring typical of newly installed poles. Although CCA inhibits rot it does not resist fire or termite attack, commonplace in dense rural environments. Moreover CCA can readily leach into local soils contaminating plant growth; impacts entirely absent with inert Titan poles. Finally end of life recycling of Titans, unlike wood pole disposals, avoids any ongoing risk of toxic chemicals leaching into sensitive environments. Old growth forest protection has become increasingly important as researchers have revealed not only the massive CO2 sink they provide but also the minimisation of CO2 release achieved by reduced disturbance of forest soils and tree destruction.
Strong, lightweight Titan poles have far longer service lives than currently available timbers. Combined with lower freight fuel needs and much reduced installation demands,Titans have a lower carbon footprint than all other Australian pole types. A confirming report is included under Design and Testing.