Clinton Climate Initiative to Light Up LA
Having recently seen sprinklers running along the side of the 405 – in the middle of the afternoon – made me wonder how Los Angeles was ever going to do it. How would we ever become a sustainable city, if we couldn’t even water our landscaping at night? I mean, aren’t we in a drought? We are? I thought so.
Well, maybe Bill can help. Last week, Bill Clinton himself announced that the Clinton Climate Initiative would be working with the City on a street lighting retrofit project. The five-year program will replace 14,000 street light fixtures with LEDs, improving the quality of the light, reducing energy use, and saving money.
Cost savings will be due in part to lower maintenance costs thanks to the longer life of LEDs, estimated to be 10-12 years, compared to 4-6 years for traditional bulbs. Lower energy costs – up to 40% lower – are another benefit, along with a reduction of CO2 emissions by 40,500 tons per year and the reduction of sky glow.
The City will save $48 million over the next seven years, which will be used to pay back the loan from the Climate Initiative for the program. After the loan is paid back, the City will save about $10 million per year in energy costs.
It doesn’t seem like a big thing, but according to the Climate Initiative, street lighting represents somewhere between 10 and 38% of a City’s utility bill. Across the country, that adds up to about 1 percent of all electricity used. All cities should take LA’s lead on this issue (it’s not too often that I get to say that!)
Photo credit: Tyrone D. Washington, LA Mayor’s Office
It is actually 140,000.