The City of Palo Alto is engaged in a pilot project in to evaluate alternative street lighting technologies. The Light Emitting Diode (LED) and induction technologies are designed to use 40% less energy and last longer than the existing High Pressure Sodium (HPS) streetlights, thereby lowering maintenance costs.
Nine LED and five induction streetlights are installed near City Hall (see map here) and on the residential streets of Colorado Avenue and Amarillo Avenue (see map here). The City also is testing monitoring technology for the fixtures near City Hall. This technology allows dimming of individual luminaires based on lighting needs at different locations and times. It also permits remote identification of failed fixtures.
The City currently has 6,300 HPS streetlights. Replacing these HPS streetlights with more energy efficient ones can potentially reduce around 600 metric tons of greenhouse gases (GHG) per year upon full rollout by about 2015, which is equivalent to taking 120 passenger vehicles off the road annually. GHG reduction associated with upgrading the streetlights will help the City meet its target by 2020.
