GE Lighting announced that it has entered into a partnership with the Bay Area Climate Collaborative (BACC) with the goal of instigating a broader transition to energy-efficient LED-based street lights in the greater San Francisco Bay area. The resulting Bay Area Next Generation Streetlight Initiative "aims to catalyze the upgrade of over 200,000 municipal streetlights in the region to advanced" solid-state lighting (SSL) technology.
Through the new initiative, the BACC hopes to provide area municipalities with lower costs and better financing terms on LED lighting purchases through the power of group purchasing. The goal is $50 million in reduced costs for local governments over five years including energy and maintenance savings, and a reduction of 100,000 metric tons of carbon emissions.
The BACC is a public-private initiative of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group with backing from Bank of America, Pacific Gas & Electric, and more than 70% of the municipalities in the Bay area. "LED lighting has been identified as a top opportunity for excellent financial, community and environmental benefits, and GE has tremendous expertise on efficient lighting solutions," said Rafael Reyes, executive director of the Bay Area Climate Collaborative. "Through our collaboration, we will help local governments save millions of dollars that can be reinvested to strengthen the regional economy."
GE Lighting will support the program with outreach programs and sharing of the expertise that it has gained through many SSL street-light projects such as the ongoing Las Vegas project that covers 50,000 fixtures.
While we regularly write about impressive numbers of LED street lights being installed in the US and around the world, the transition is in its infancy. In a story on our sister LEDs Magazine website, we reported on the results of recent research by the smart-energy focused Northeast Group. The study reported that less than 1% of the street lights in the US have been converted to LEDs. It also said that the satisfaction rate of municipalities that have installed the lights is 95%.
