Outdoor Lighting
Outdoor lighting systems can account for a significant percentage of a municipal government’s electricity usage. In Sydney, for instance, it’s as high as 37 percent. But with innovative new technologies, cities can raise the efficiency standard for outdoor lighting, while quickly reducing greenhouse gas emissions and saving on energy costs.
Advanced Street Lights
New lighting technologies such as high-efficacy LED and induction lamps, ultra-efficient electronics, and centralized intelligent control systems, enable cities to reduce energy use up to 70 percent. Longer life expectancies ‐ up to 100,000 hours, or over four times the lifespan of a conventional high-pressure sodium vapor streetlight ‐ complement these energy savings and reduce the lifecycle cost of projects. Typically, street light projects can pay for themselves in three to eight years.
LED Traffic Signals
While more than 50 percent of traffic signals in the United States have been converted to energy-efficient LED lights, aggregate worldwide adoption is less than 20 percent. By replacing conventional incandescent signals with LEDs, cities can reduce traffic signal energy use up to 90 percent. Longer life expectancies of LED signals can reduce maintenance costs by approximately 75 percent. Traffic signal retrofits typically pay for themselves in one to three years.
CCI Support
The Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) helps cities around the world improve the energy efficiency of street and traffic light systems by advising on project management, purchasing, financing, and technology. CCI works directly with cities to initiate new projects and to move existing projects forward more quickly and cost-effectively. CCI’s assistance to cities for street and traffic light projects will vary based on the city’s technical expertise, staffing, and experience.
WHITE PAPER: Street Lighting Retrofits
PROFILE
A pioneering LED streetlight retrofit project in Los Angeles proved the twin energy cost and emissions reductions achievable for cities involved in CCI’s Outdoor Lighting Program.
