The Taiwan government has decided on a budget of NT$5.49 billion (US$179 million) to support local governments to replace 692,000 mercury vapor street lamps with LED models in an attempt to completely convert to LED street lamps by the end of 2016.
Taiwan will become the first country to completely replace mercury vapor street lamps around the world, the Taiwan government said. The use of LED street lamps will save 640 million kWh a year, equivalent to 330,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. The reduction in power consumption will cut power costs by NT$1.1 billion and maintenance costs by NT$346 million a year.
The Taiwan government began to promote LED traffic lights in 2008 and of LED street lamps later in the same year. So far around Taiwan, 284,000 mercury vapor street lamps have been replaced with LED models.
LED street lamps have luminous efficiency of over 100lm/W and a service life of over six years, more than three times those for mercury vapor models.
