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Clinton and LA
Mayor Villaraigosa
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On February 16, former President Bill Clinton announced that
the Outdoor Lighting Program of the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) is
working with Los Angeles on the
largest LED street lighting
retrofit project ever undertaken by a city to date, said a report by the
CCI.
Over
a five-year period, the City of Los Angeles' Bureau of Street Lighting will
replace 140,000 existing streetlight fixtures in the city with LED units
that not only will improve LA's lighting quality and reduce its electricity
use, but also will help the city to save money in the process.
While
typical streetlight lamps will last from four to six years, LED fixtures
have a longer life span, estimated from 10 to 12 years. The new,
white-light LED streetlight units are more durable and damage-resistant
than other technologies. This not only will reduce the frequency and cost
to repair streetlight fixtures, but also will provide LA with considerable
savings in labor and material.
The
improved equipment life also means that fixtures will more reliably light
streets and sidewalks for city residents. In addition, LA is committed to
using LED fixtures that will ease what is known as sky glow - the
artificial illumination of the night sky.
"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.
"Now, thanks to the work of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the Los
Angeles Bureau of Street Lighting, and my Foundation's Climate Initiative,
the stars over Death Valley may again
shine more brightly."
Once
this overhaul is fully complete, LA will save electricity expended on
street lighting in the city by a minimum of 40 percent and reduce carbon
emissions by approximately 40,500 tons a year, which is the equivalent of
taking 6,700 passenger vehicles off the road every year.
Over
a seven-year period, the city will save a total of $48 million and reduce
carbon emissions by 197,000 tons. After the loan is repaid in seven years,
LA will continue to save $10 million annually as a direct result of this
lighting retrofit project. In addition, this loan will have no adverse
impact on the city, as the loan payments will be covered in full by savings
from current energy and maintenance costs.
This
LED retrofit project also will include the installation of remote
monitoring units at all 140,000 streetlights replaced in the city. These
devices will automatically report streetlight failures directly to the
Bureau of Street Lighting for immediate repair, thus enabling its staff to
optimize its maintenance services.
"If
every city followed the example of Los
Angeles and reduced the electricity used
by their streetlights by 50 percent, it would be equivalent to eliminating
over 2.5 of those coal plants per year," President Clinton said.
"We would do that while saving taxpayers money. And by doing that, we
would also reclaim our night sky."
CCI's
Outdoor Lighting Program works with partner cities to improve the energy
efficiency of street and traffic light systems through a combination of
technical, purchasing, and project assistance.
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