The Bay Area Climate Collaborative (BACC) and GE Lighting are working together to advance the energy-efficient streetlighting market. The Bay Area Next Generation Streetlight Initiative aims to catalyze the upgrade of over 200,000 municipal streetlights in the region to LED technology, offering about 50 percent energy savings and 10-plus years of life for significant maintenance cost savings versus older incumbent technologies.
Through the Bay Area Next Generation Streetlight Initiative, the BACC is developing educational resources and pooling Bay Area-wide interest in LED streetlight conversions with a joint procurement option to secure improved purchase and financing terms on the LEDs. The initiative will serve as a business model that local governments in the Bay Area and beyond can replicate to upgrade streetlights at lower costs while engaging local workforce development. Over five years, the upgrades will deliver up to $50 million in reduced costs for local governments, over 100,000 metrics tons of CO2 avoidance, and many jobs, according to GE Lighting.
GE Lighting, which sees a huge market opportunity in roadway LED lighting, will support the BACC’s outreach to local governments on the benefits of LED streetlight technology and development of tools and educational resources that facilitate lighting upgrades. GE also will provide its expertise to inform the resources and strategies for the initiative.
GE invented the first visible LED, which was created 50 years ago this month.
GE is working with the City of Las Vegas to convert more than 80 percent of the city’s 50,000 streetlights to LED fixtures, which will provide $2.7 million in annual savings.
The BACC is a public-private initiative of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, launched by regional civic and business leaders to accelerate the Bay Area clean energy economy. Major partners include Bank of America, Pacific Gas & Electric, and local governments representing over 70 percent of the Bay Area population.