Ann Arbor to use LEDs

Michigan city of Ann Arbor to replace street lights with energy-saving LEDs


DETROIT - How many Ann Arbor city workers does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Soon, none. Instead, they will be installing fixtures - light-emitting diodes, or LEDs - to replace about 1,400 street lights.

The eco-friendly city about 50 kilometres west of Detroit that's home to the University of Michigan says it will be the first in the United States to convert all of its downtown street lights to the technology that uses less than half the energy of traditional bulbs and could save the community $100,000 a year over the long haul.

"LEDs pay for themselves in four years," said Mayor John Hieftje, who announced the city's plans this week as it joined Raleigh, N.C., and Toronto in the LED City initiative, an industry-government group working to evaluate, deploy and promote LED lighting.

"They provide the same light, but they last 10 years. We had to replace the old ones every two years."

LEDs, small chips usually encased in a glass dome the size of a matchstick head, have been used in electronics for decades. Those LEDs usually were red or green, but a scientific breakthrough in the 1990s paved the way for the production of LEDs that produce white light.

Lighting consumes 22 per cent of electricity produced in the U.S., according to the Department of Energy, and widespread use of LED lighting could cut consumption in half. By 2027, LED lighting could cut annual energy use by the equivalent of 500 million barrels of oil, with the attendant reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide, the gas believed to be responsible for global warming.

Hieftje said the lighting conversion will reduce greenhouse gases by the equivalent of taking 400 cars off the road for one year. He said it will cost about $450 to replace each globe and fit the new fixture into an existing pole, and the two-year project is being paid for by a $630,000 grant from the city's Downtown Development Authority.

Durham, N.C.-based Cree Inc. makes the components that are inside the lighting units Ann Arbor is using.

"LED lighting can provide all the capabilities required to do any lighting," said Greg Merritt, Cree's director of corporate marketing. "The hurdle, obviously is the cost. As we improve the technology, the economics make sense for more and more applications."

Hieftje, who said the city successfully has tested LEDs during a three-year pilot project of 25 lights on one block, says the LED replacement is part of a larger plan he launched two years ago to use 30 per cent renewable energy for all operations by 2010. That includes solar power, conservation and converting its bus fleet to hybrid-electric.

"We're trying to be a sustainable city and that's the bottom line," he said.