San Francisco deploys energy-efficient street lights
City officials hope to secure significant long-term savings and public safety with the deployment of new energy-efficient street lights. First step is the installation of 50 LED (light-emitting diode) street lights in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighbourhood. Compared to traditional high-pressure sodium light bulbs, LED street lights are about 50 percent more energy-efficient, meaning that they last about two to three times longer and produce a whiter, brighter light which benefits the public safety.
Other than implementing LED lights, the city of San Francisco also demonstrated new smart street light control technologies at a local media event. Smart control technologies can contribute another 20 percent of energy efficiency improvement in addition to the LED lights, the article states.
The new technology can help reduce maintenance costs by allowing the operators to monitor individual street light perfomance, adjust the light intensity level and receive immediate information when lights have failed or are about to fail.
The street lights of San Francisco are owned by Pacific Gas & Electric Company and San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, respectively. Both organisations are now working together on testing and evaluating different smart control technologies to better the energy efficiency in San Francisco.
Companies also offering smart control technologies are Power-One, Amplex and Streetlight Intelligence to mention a few.