Low energy street lights
From Greenlivingpedia, a wiki on green living, building and energy
Low energy street lights have great potential to greatly reduce carbon emissions.
- In Victoria, Australia, every night more than 300,000 street lights are switched on.
- Switching to greener globes (such as LEDs) would cost about $80 million.
- Ownership of streetlight infrastructure varies between local councils. Victoria's deregulated power system has complicated matters as distributors own power poles and lights, while councils pay for electricity use and maintenance.
- Some councils, such as Nillumbik Shire Council in north-east Melbourne, have already budgeted for low-energy lights, but are asking for more money from the State Government.
- Street lights currently constitute about one-third of total emissions for local councils.
- Local tests of the low-energy lights, which are already used in parts of NSW and South Australia, have shown they consume about a third of the energy for the same output as the current 80-watt mercury vapour lamps.
[edit] External links
- Lights left in limbo over $80m lamp sum, The Age, April 20, 2008