Ann Arbor Goes Green With LEDs!
Ann Arbor is on its way to becoming the first US city to light its downtown with 100% LED energy
Last year Ann Arbor inked a deal with LED manufacturer, Cree Inc to provide lighting for a citywide LED initiative. This effort was undertaken in the hopes of saving energy and reducing yearly green house gas emissions. Recently the city of Ann Arbor forged another deal for retrofitting LEDs with a company called Lumecon. Over the 07-08 holidays, Ann Arbor trees lit up with over 114,000 LED lights. The city also plans to convert over 1,000 street lights eventually to LED light.
Ann Arbor’s long term goal is to cut energy costs in half and reduce 2,425 tons of CO2 annually. The payback period on this environmentally friendly investment is a mere 3.8 years! This project was partially funded by the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority ($630,000). The plan was borne from a succesful pilot program performed on one city block with 25 LED lights over 3 years. Based on this research, the city should save over $100,000 a year on the first 1,000 street lights alone!
The street light conversion project will be completed over the next two years. Kudos to the City of Ann Arbor for their vision and commitment to help the environment!
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May 31st, 2008 at 10:59 AM
[...] again, Ann Arbor tops the list of responsible and ‘energy smart’ forward thinking cities. We are proud to be part of this wonderful [...]
January 28th, 2009 at 7:09 PM
[...] Ann Arbor recently embarked on a journey to reduce power consumption – saving the environment and its pocketbook. They employed the latest in LED technology to light the streets and reduce consumption across the board. Every year precious taxpayer dollars are spent to upkeep community services such as street lighting. Ann Arbor was spending about $1.4 million a year to keep the city streets illuminated. After the initial installation of 1,000 LED street lamps, the City decreased energy use from 120 watts per fixture to just 56 watts per fixture. A savings of more than half on their energy bills! Eventually all 6,600 street lamps will be replaced resulting in a yearly savings of about $700,000 which will enable the city to pay for the replacement program in only four years. Not only that, but the new LED bulbs last 10 years as opposed to a two year life span on the previous bulbs – this also decreases costly labor. [...]