Solid State Lighting - Street and Parking Lot Lighting

CASE STUDY: STREET AND PARKING LOT LIGHTING

LED parking lot and street lights are a rapidly emerging solid state lighting application. Leading the way, in February 2009 the City of Los Angeles announced a partnership with the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) to replace 140,000 street lights with LED fixtures over the next five years.

The new lights will use 40 to 50 percent less electricity than the city's existing street lights, which currently cost the city $15 million per year to operate. Plus, the lights will last two to three times longer than traditional lights, saving on maintenance costs. LED lights are also more desirable for residents - they increase visibility for drivers and pedestrians, provide more aesthetically pleasing light, and provide a greater sense of safety due to more even light distribution, better color, and greater reliability.

The capital cost for the replacement is financed by a seven year loan from CCI, which will be entirely paid for through the new street lights' energy and maintenance savings, while still saving taxpayers $48 million over the loan period. The LED street lights will save the City of Los Angeles $10 million per year thereafter, and will reduce carbon (CO2) emissions by 40,500 tons per year - equivalent to taking 6,700 cars off the road.

Building off of this success, the Clinton Climate Initiative is expanding to work with other cities on similar street lighting projects. With the Next Generation Lighting Industry Alliance projecting that LED lights will reach first-cost parity with traditional high intensity discharge lights by 2015, the savings will only get better.

Photo credit: US Department of Energy