Editors note: special thanks to boston.com
For most, the orange-yellow glow that blots out the night sky over metropolitan areas is the most visible drawback of high-pressure sodium and metal halide street lights.
But officials in charge of the street lights in Natick and Wellesley MA see something else: devices that are less efficient, less effective, and more expensive than a new generation of street lights using light-emitting diodes for illumination. Only a few communities, such as Los Angeles, San Jose, Calif., Anchorage, and Ann Arbor , Mich., have committed to the new technology on a large scale.
In Greater Boston, Natick and Wellesley are at the forefront of a movement to get rid of high-pressure sodium and metal halide lights by making the switch to LED fixtures.
“This stuff makes sense both from a green standard and a budget standard,” said Bill Chenard, the business manager for Natick’s Department of Public Works.
Within the next month, Natick will install 20 LED street lights downtown. If they prove as bright as the old-style lights, the town will begin replacing all of its 2,600 street lights in phases.
Though the initial costs are significantly more than for traditional street lights, officials in both towns say, the switch pays for itself in five years or less through energy savings and the reduced manpower needed to change the shorter-lived sodium and metal halide lights. After that, the savings – 42 to 52 percent in energy costs alone – go straight to the municipality’s bottom line.
For Natick, with an electricity budget of $226,500 this fiscal year for street lights, it would mean around $100,000 per year in energy savings, in addition to the reduced cost of sending out workers to switch out the bulbs. LED street lights last five to nine times longer than standard lights, Chenard said.
All of this is good news for advocates of less light pollution, like the International Dark-Sky Association. Founded in Arizona in 1988, the group pushes for laws and local ordinances that reduce light pollution, such as requiring shielded lights. The group also gives its stamp of approval to lighting devices that reduce light pollution. Both towns are testing Dark-Sky-approved street lights.
Previous incarnations of LED street lights weren’t up to par with their traditional counterparts, said officials in both towns, but the newest wave of lights promise illumination that’s better than the old-school street lights.
“The earlier LEDs – the technology wasn’t there yet,” said Donald Newell, the Wellesley Municipal Light Plant’s superintendent. He said the town has been testing LED lights for the past few years, but nothing had wowed officials enough to make the large-scale investment until now. “Over the past six months to a year, the big players have gotten into the market. . . . The new light fixtures are much better,‘‘ he said.
Wellesley will be changing over to LED, but on a smaller scale than Natick, with 500 lights to be replaced downtown.
Within the next two weeks, the town expects to receive bids from two light manufacturers. Newell said the process of switching the lights in the heavily trafficked area along Washington and Central streets will be spread over a few years to mitigate the cost of the LED lights, which are 20 to 30 times more expensive than the metal halide units they will replace.
But Newell said he’s convinced the new lights are a big improvement.
“They last longer and they give better light,” said Newell. “These lights actually aim down from the top of the fixture and it’s easier to direct the patterns on LEDs.”
High-intensity LED lights use hundreds of diodes in a tight cluster that can be focused in a specific direction, illuminating only the areas meant to be lighted. The diffuse light generated by traditional fixtures means that beams are sent in a wide arc, brightening neighbors’ yards, nearby windows, and the atmosphere as well as their target areas.
LEDs also use significantly less electricity than other types of lighting. Newell said the LED lights are 40 watts, compared to the existing 210-watt units. When electricity use is decreased, less coal is burned to provide the electricity, and less coal burned means less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Los Angeles recently began a five-year initiative to change all of its street lights to LEDs. Officials estimate the city will save $10 million annually and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 40,500 tons per year. Earlier this year, San Jose received about $2 million in federal stimulus money to convert 1,500 of its 62,000 street lights to LEDs.
In August 2008, Anchorage approved a $2.2 million effort to switch 16,000 of its high-pressure sodium street lights to LEDs. Ann Arbor received $930,000 in grants to convert all of the city-owned street lights, or 1,800 of its 7,000 fixtures, and has replaced about 700 over the past two years.
“It’s been almost unanimously positive,” said Andrew Brix, Ann Arbor’s energy programs manager, of the public feedback. He said that the LEDs often give off better light than their predecessors and last at least five times as long, which is saving the city money. Ann Arbor is negotiating with the utility companies that own the city’s remaining street lights to do a full-scale conversion.
“There’s a lot of opportunity there that we’re still exploring,” said Brix. He said that at some point, the city will have a computerized system allowing it to control the brightness of individual street lights, depending on the time of day or any emergency situations that arise.
Chenard said the push for LEDs in Natick has been led by Town Administrator Martha White, who has been “aggressive” in urging town employees to explore green alternatives to reduce costs and help the environment. If the pilot program is successful, Chenard said, the town will be looking for grant money to help fund the switch. Success will be measured in the amount of illumination needed for public safety, though Chenard said he is optimistic.
“All of the research we’ve done and all of the info we’ve received says they have better light quality at a huge savings.”
Megan McKee can be reached at megan.mckee@gmail.com
Editors Note: Commercial Funding Network, Inc. offers lease-to-own funding to commercial, non-profit and municipal customers looking to spread the LED retrofit project costs over time. Monthly payments are structured to match the energy and labor savings.
The New York Times published a profile of 7 businesses that did not survive 2009. (Dec 30 2009)
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