LED (light-emitting diodes) street lighting can generate energy savings as high as 85%, an independent global trial has found. The programme also indicates that citizens of pilot cities prefer LED lighting, citing social and environmental benefits.
The findings of LightSavers, an independent two-and-a-half-year global pilot of LED lamps in 15 trials across 12 cities including New York, London and Kolkata, are presented for the first time in a new report entitled, Lighting the Clean Revolution: The Rise of LED Street Lighting and What it Means for Cities.
The report explores the global market status and potential for LEDs and provides guidelines for policymakers and city light managers who want to scale-up large LED retrofits. It was launched as part of the Clean Revolution campaign at the Rio+20 UN Global Compact Corporate Sustainability Forum and produced by The Climate Group in partnership with Philips.
Key findings include:
-- Surveys in Kolkata, London, Sydney and Toronto indicated that between 68% to 90% of respondents endorsed LEDs city-wide rollout. Benefits highlighted included improved safety and visibility.
-- LED lighting trialed lifespan ranges from 50,000 to 100,000 hours indicating a high return on investment.
-- LED failure rate over 6,000 hours is around 1%.
-- The Climate Group and Philips are calling for an international low carbon lighting standard to be created and implemented ensuring that citizens worldwide have access to energy efficient outdoor lighting.
Mark Kenber, CEO, The Climate Group says: "This report clearly highlights that LEDs are ready to be scaled-up in towns and cities across the globe. We are now calling on Governments to remove policy obstacles and enable a rapid transition to low carbon lighting.
"All new public lighting -- both street lighting and in public buildings -- should be LED by 2015, with the aim of all public lighting being LED by 2020.
"We will be working to recruit a leadership group of city, state and national governments to adopt this and report on progress on an annual basis over the next three years," he added.
"A full switch to the latest energy-efficient LED lighting solutions provides significant energy savings, a reduction in CO2 emissions, and will transform urban environments", says Harry Verhaar, Head of Global Public & Government Affairs at Philips Lighting. "We believe that by driving this lighting market transition, our LED lighting solutions will create livable cities for the benefit of residents and visitors."
For residents the benefits of LEDs are tangible: Gobind Saha, 61, owner of a roadside stall at Rabindra Sarani (India), says, "These white lights have changed the way my little business used to be under the street lights every evening. Now that a buyer can clearly differentiate between green and blue, my sales figures have gone higher."
Lighting is responsible for 19% of global electricity use. Doubling lighting efficiency globally would have the equivalent of eliminating half of EU electricity and heat production emissions.
