Street and Parking Lot Lighting

Streetlights represent an attractive application for LED lighting due to several factors.

• Large number of streetlights
• High maintenance costs due to height and location over public roadways
• Growing community pressure to implement "full cut-off" solutions to minimize glare and light pollution
• Desire for white light

LED streetlights are now available from a variety of vendors, and offer many advantages over traditional streetlight technologies.

• Long lifetimes and highly reliable service, greatly reducing maintenance costs
• Highly efficient light source potentially reducing electricity consumption by up to 50% or more
• White light available in color temperatures from "warm" to "cool" with high CRI providing high-quality white light

Installations

Ann Arbor, Michigan
"The City of Ann Arbor is installing LED streetlights in order to reduce lighting costs and greenhouse gas emissions. After successfully piloting an LED replacement for our downtown "globe" lights, the City received a $630,000 grant from the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority to fund retrofits for 1,400 downtown lights. This initial installation will save the City over $100,000 per year, reducing annual greenhouse gas emissions by 267 tonnes CO2e. In addition, testing will continue on LED replacements for neighborhood streetlights, with the eventual goal of replacing all of our public lighting with LEDs. Full implementation of LEDs would cut Ann Arbor's public lighting energy use in half and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2,200 tonnes CO2e annually." [excerpt from the city's report]

 

 

 

 

 

> Read the city's full report

 

 

 

 

Anchorage, Alaska
According to Anchorage Mayor Mayor Mark Begich, "We have studied new lighting technology extensively over the past several months to validate energy and maintenance cost savings. We also conducted a lighting conference and public survey in March of this year that showed our residents overwhelmingly approve of the new white LED lighting. With this feedback and quantified costs savings research in hand, we are confident moving ahead with the broad deployment of LED lighting for our roadways.”

The LED lights, made by BetaLED, are expected to use 50 percent less energy than current streetlights, which could save the city $360,000 annually at today’s energy prices. The LED fixtures, based on performance-leading Cree XLamp LEDs, typically last up to seven times longer than high-pressure sodium fixtures, allowing Anchorage to better utilize maintenance resources.

 

 

In this photo of an LED streetlight test in Anchorage, note the alternating sets of LED street lights (white light) and high-pressure sodium lights (orange light).

 

 

 

 

Welland, Ontario
The city’s growing use of LEDs is targeted to help decrease the CAN$550,000 per year cost of operating its streetlights. The city plans to eventually retrofit all streetlights with LEDs, which could yield a savings of $253,980 per year.

 

Welland has installed 50 LED streetlights along the revitalized area of Fitch Street, shown at left, and is formalizing plans for the installation of 50 additional street and pedestrian lights.