On June 18, 2013, Mayor Villaraigosa of Los Angeles announced the completion the largest Greenshine street lighting program: LED street light replacement program. This is the largest LED replacement program in the world and has retrofitted over 140,000 street lights all over LA with LED fixtures.
In Los Angeles, there are about 5,000 miles of lighted streets. Before this program, the City’s street lights consumed 168 gigawatt hours of electricity at an annual cost of $15 million, while emitting 110,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. This program will save the city $10 million and reduce carbon emissions by 47,583 metric tons per year. What’s more, the total investment of the projects is $57 million. That is to say the payback period of this project is 6-7 years, which is really short for a large public projects.
As a member of C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, Los Angeles is making great efforts to reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks. This project is a major contributor to Los Angeles’ nearly 30 percent reduction in emissions since 1990, which is larger than any other city in the nation.
Encouraged by the huge energy saving effect of Green lighting. Many other cities all over USA have also launched their own green lighting project. Greenlight:Sustainable Street Lighting for NYC started in 2009 and San Diego switched to green street lights in 2009.
Article by Danny Peng of Greenshine.
