NYC Streets Lit by LEDs by 2017

All 250,000 standard streetlight fixtures in New York City will be replaced with energy efficient LEDs by 2017, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced.

Compared to the current standard high-pressure sodium lights currently on streets, which last six years, LEDs can last up to 20 years before needing replacement, potentially producing up to an 80 percent savings on maintenance. All together, the 250,000 new LED streetlights are expected to be the largest LED retrofit in the country and save about $6 million in energy and $8 million in maintenance a year for a total of $14 million in longer-lasting, more efficient lighting, the Mayor’s office said.

The first of three phases to replace the standard “cobra-head” high-pressure sodium streetlights, which will upgrade 80,000 at a time across the five boroughs, is expected to be completed in December 2015. LEDs already have been installed in streetlights along key corridors, most recently for Eastern Parkway’s pedestrian lights between Grand Army Plaza and Ralph Avenue in Brooklyn, on Manhattan’s FDR Drive, along Central Park’s pedestrian paths and on the “necklace” lights that adorn the cables of East River Bridges. The final phase is expected to be completed by 2017.

The project is the first to receive funding through the Accelerated Conservation and Efficiency initiative or “ACE,” a $100 million competitive program that the Department of Citywide Administrative Services launched this fall to expedite projects undertaken by city agencies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

PlaNYC – New York’s long-term sustainability program – aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from city government operations 30 percent by 2017 and the LED replacements are aimed at helping achieve that goal.

Other cities that either have switched to LED streetlights or are moving in that direction include San Francisco, San Antonio, Texas,  Austin, Texas, and Montreal, Canada.