An LED streetlight project in Detroit is about two-thirds completed, according to a story last week in LEDs Magazine that focused on an update from the U.S. Department of Energy. The project was announced last year. The goal is to install 65,000 solid-state lighting luminaries. The story said that the project began “in earnest” in 2013 in the midst of the city’s bankruptcy.
The piece tracks the unfolding of the program, which is being funded by short-term loans and longer term bonds developed by the state’s Public Lighting Authority and the Michigan Finance Authority. As of August, 48,000 LEDs had been installed. Expectations are that all neighborhood lights will be changed by the end of the year, with thoroughfares switched out in 2016. The LEDs are expected to save $2.4 million annually compared to the high-pressure sodium lamps they are replacing.
The Detroit project is big, but nothing compared to India. The Better India reports that official figures are that to date more than 15 million LEDs have been installed in the country. That’s only from March. The plan is to switch to LEDs for domestic and street lighting for 100 cities by next March.