Inspired by the Los Angeles street lighting upgrade, where many of the city's 140,000 high-pressure sodium (HPS) street lights were converted to Cree LED luminaires, San Luis Obispo in California has selected LED chip, lamp and lighting maker Cree Inc of Durham, NC, USA to help improve the city's sustainability efforts. City officials collaborated with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) to replace more than 2000 HPS street lights with Cree XSP Series LED street lights, delivering superior light quality while saving on maintenance costs and reducing the city's annual energy consumption by more than 65%.
"The decision to go with LED fixtures is helping the city save money, use less electricity, improve safety and decrease greenhouse-gas emissions," comments Tom Lorish, senior customer relationship manager, PG&E.
"Upgrading to Cree LED street lights was a natural evolution of our energy-saving and sustainability initiatives," says San Luis Obispo city engineer Barbara Lynch. "My maintenance staff was impressed with the ease of installation, and we're expecting to cut maintenance and service expenses by 60% annually, which we can now allocate to other city initiatives."
Featuring Cree's NanoOptic Precision Delivery Grid optic technology, the XSP Series LED street light delivers better optical control and more uniform, white light than incumbent lighting solutions, it is claimed, making it a suitable replacement for HPS street lights. The installed XSP Series LED street lights are helping to save San Luis Obispo an anticipated usage of 750,000 kilowatt-hours per year and eliminate nearly 395,000 pounds of greenhouse gas annually. According to the city, the LED upgrade will reduce San Luis Obispo's electricity bill by about two-thirds.
"The city's upgrade to Cree LED street lights is proof that replacing outdated, inefficient technologies with innovative LED technology makes economic sense, saving municipalities from the moment they're installed," says Norbert Hiller, Cree executive VP, lighting. "The XSP Series LED street lights are providing the city with better light quality while using significantly less energy with virtually no ongoing maintenance."
