All across America, streetlights provide light that makes our roads safer and adds security in our neighborhoods. Unfortunately, streetlights are very costly to operate, mainly because of the high amount of energy each one uses. In this day of tighter state and city budgets, and our awareness of how our energy use effects our environment, it makes sense to look at streetlight operations to see how money and energy can be saved, while still providing the safety and security we enjoy from those streetlights. Over the last few years, complex systems have been devised to address this problem, but until now, a practical answer with an acceptable payback time has not been available.

Looking at the costs a city pays annually for streetlights; a city of 180,000 people (which, using the formula of 1 streetlight for every 6 inhabitants, translates into about 30,000 streetlights) spends over $10 million per year powering and maintaining streetlights. Most of these costs are from the cost of energy to power the streetlights. Dramatically reducing the cost of operating streetlights will free up much needed budget money reducing deficits, allowing spending for other important projects, or reducing taxes.

Besides being costly, streetlights contribute to air pollution. The production of electricity needed to power street lighting systems adds to carbon dioxide emissions (CO2 is the principal “greenhouse gas”). The Table below provides an estimate of electricity use and the associated CO2 emissions for a sample city with a population of 180,000.

photo: Coal fired power plant