Letter: Consider LED lighting for savings

Streetlights perform an important function, making it safer for people to drive or walk at night while also deterring criminal activity. They also consume a lot of electricity. Often street lighting is a municipality’s biggest fixed costs.

But what if a change in technology could improve that lighting and cut the energy use in half?

LED streetlights are doing just that.

Seattle’s municipally owned utility is installing 41,000 residential streetlights to LEDs. Once all 41,000 are converted, energy costs alone are expected to save almost $1 million a year. An additional $1.4 million a year in savings is projected from reduced maintenance.

The city will be able to use those dollars for other community needs, such as police, firefighters, parks, libraries and other services.

As manager of streetlight engineering at Seattle City Light, Seattle’s publicly owned power utility, I encourage city officials in the Vancouver area to consider attending the Department of Energy’s Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium meeting held July 15 at the Crown Plaza Hotel, 1113 Sixth Ave., Seattle to learn more about how LED street lighting can benefit your residents.

I am also director of the U.S. DOE’s Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium, a national consortium that seeks to accelerate use of LED street lights. For information on MSSLC, visit http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/ssl/consortium.html.

Edward Smalley

Seattle