Municipalities considering energy-efficient light-emitting diode (LED) street lights for their jurisdiction face a variety of regulatory issues. This brief describes how cities can successfully address these challenges to achieve multiple advantages: Lower energy costs. Today's LED technology can offer equal or superior lighting performance while lowering street lighting electricity consumption by 50% or more. 1 Given that street lights can constitute as much as 40% of municipal energy bills, 2 these savings are significant for local budgets. Lower maintenance costs. Because LEDs have a much longer lifetime than other lighting technologies, they require replacement less often. Dollar savings from reduced maintenance can be twice as large as dollar savings from reduced energy consumption. 3 Better street light tracking. Street lighting replacement efforts often identify unnecessary street lights that can be removed entirely, or even "phantom" street lights that do not exist or belong to another municipality but for which customers are being erroneously charged. For example, some municipalities in Vermont have eliminated 30-40% of their street lights during LED replacement projects. 4 Better street light management. Advanced lighting controls, with which LED technologies are compatible, can further reduce energy use through automated dimming. 5 Better lighting quality. LEDs improve visibility, reduce nighttime light pollution significantly, and may create public safety benefits. 6 Reduced greenhouse gas emissions. LEDs lower electricity usage and associated emissions, which creates worldwide benefit and helps municipalities attain smart or green city status.Despite all of these benefits, LED street lighting replacement projects have proven difficult to implement for many municipalities. The U.S. Department of Energy's Outdoor Lighting Accelerator, developed to "accelerate the adoption of high-efficiency outdoor lighting and improve system-wide replacement processes at the municipal level," 7 has
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