Los Angeles Getting 140,000 New LED Streetlights

The city of Los Angeles intends to retrofit 140,000 streetlights with LED light bulbs. If successful, this will be the nation’s largest lighting retrofit, and it comes with a price tag of about $57 million.

With nearly 35 million streetlights in the United States, it’s estimated that they use 1% of all the electricity is consumed nationwide.

The initiative was announced in Los Angeles by former President Bill Clinton and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. That’s because LA is getting help with the retrofit from the Clinton Climate Initiative’s Outdoor Lighting Program. Part of the funding also comes from a $14 million rebate from the Department of Water and Power. The Clinton Climate Initiative has become an increasingly active arm of the Clinton Global Initiative.

>>More RGB News On Greening LA: Los Angeles Giving Out FREE CFLs

“If you have ever been to Death Valley National Park and looked up on a clear night, you would see that the stars seem to be dimmer than they were when I was a child. But they are not getting dimmer, really–the rest of the sky is getting brighter because of all the lights from Los Angeles and Las Vegas and other surrounding cities and communities,” President Clinton said.

“This is the best place in the world — in the U.S. at least — to lead this,” Clinton went on to say, citing the city’s ongoing environmental efforts. “This is like taking 6,000 cars off the road. “If every major city followed your lead, we could eliminate 2 1/2 coal-fired power plants.”

Once the overhaul is complete, the city will get an energy savings of about 40-percent and reduce carbon emissions by 40 tons/year. It is expected this will save the city $48 million, and reduce carbon emissions by 197,000 tons, over a seven year period.

The program is scheduled to start in June. Initially 20,000 bulbs will be replaced, and 30,000 with each following year.

While the program will start before New York City’s own efforts to provide LED streetlights, but NYC hopes to replace up to 300,000 streetlights with LEDs. Oh snap!

Photo: © Kineticimagery | Dreamstime.com

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About Jerry James Stone

Jerry is a web developer, part-time blogger and a full-time environmentalist. His crusade for all things eco started twenty years ago when he ditched his meat-and-potatoes upbringing for something more vegetarian-shaped.

He currently works at Care2 and also blogs over at Treehugger. His passions include green tech, eco politics and smart green design. And while he doesn't own a car anymore, he loves to write about those too.

Jerry studied at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, CA. During his time there he was a DJ at the campus station KCPR and he also wrote for the campus paper.

Jerry currently resides in San Francisco, CA with his cat Lola.

You can stalk him on Twitter @jerryjamesstone.

Comments

  1. Anon says:

    Snap?

  2. This is great news, and something that we hope all cities adopt. The savings in both energy and reduced pollution would be significant if the top 100 cities in America all decided to follow a similar program.

  3. J Forrest says:

    Snap?

  4. koka says:

    I plan on shooting these LED streetlights. They are the first step towards aliens taking over the Earth.

  5. JOhn Savage says:

    Wow dude that is amazing stuff! Well done!

    RT

  6. Daniel Singer says:

    My city (Ann Arbor, MI) did this a few years ago, and it's awesome. GO LA!

  7. Zeraw says:

    Snap?

  8. Victor says:

    Probably be more helpful to do the calculation of when it will be finished (4-5 years).

  9. Adam says:

    "Once the overhaul is complete, the city will [...] reduce carbon emissions by 40 tons/year. It is expected this will [...] reduce carbon emissions by 197,000 tons, over a seven year period."

    Maybe I'm insane, but does that make any sense?

  10. Yep, that's great news, but will it be real green light? See the movie:

    http://www.stichtingmilieunet.nl/andersbekekenblo…

  11. Wow! It seems that LED street lights are more and more popular now.

  12. Blake Lange says:

    Keep the money in the United States! Millennia Technologies L.E.D. streetlights are manufactured in the USA.

  13. Yah, this seems like a total effin no brainer. I mean, LEDs. . pricey, sure. But one would think our government should focus on efficiency.

  14. Bankrupt Boy says:

    this is awesome news and there is absolutely no reason for them not to do this

  15. Sherry Wang says:

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  16. Egbert says:

    The following is our main products:

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  17. Sonali Mehta says:

    hey finally people are realising and acting towards saving the planet and further giving a helping hand to a greater cause of reducing global warming.

  18. Andy says:

    Good to hear! I always wonder how much electricity the streetlights in LA consume when I see pictures of the city.

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  1. [...] Check out this HOT story: Los Angeles Installing 140,000 New LED Streelights Starting June ‘09 [...]

  2. [...] facilities can be improved to reduce load on the grid. Replacing conventional street lights with new efficient ones and switching to solar panels to power them are some of the simple [...]

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