Phoenix to Cut Traffic Signal Light Energy Use by 90 Percent
The city of Phoenix has signed an agreement with Ameresco to provide lighting retrofit services, materials, and equipment for the installation of traffic signal LED lamps.
The City of Phoenix Public Works and Street Transportation departments have signed an agreement with Ameresco to provide lighting retrofit services, materials, and equipment for the installation of traffic signal LED lamps. Work on the project’s first phase, which will outfit 335 intersections, is expected to be completed in early 2011. The proposed second phase is anticipated to include 525 additional intersections.
“Ameresco designs, constructs, and implements major municipal traffic and street-lighting retrofits throughout the U.S., and this project with the City of Phoenix is one of the more comprehensive intersection lighting initiatives in the state. We’re proud to work with the city on a project that offers significant savings,” said David J. Anderson, Ameresco’s executive vice president. “We commend the City for its aggressive approach to energy conservation and sustainability, which will provide both financial and environmental benefits now and well into the future.”
The new LED lamps have a significantly longer life and use up to 90 percent less energy than the existing lamps do. In addition to decreasing operations and maintenance costs, the savings over time will pay for the cost of installing them. Other advantages of LEDs are that they produce a brighter, more vibrant light and contain no hazardous materials. The LED retrofits will provide significant energy demand reductions, and thereby lower the cost of energy usage in the community.
With an estimated annual energy reduction of more than 5,000,000 kilowatt-hours, the project is expected to reduce emissions by 2,517 tons of carbon dioxide, ten tons of sulfur dioxide and eight tons of nitrogen dioxide; equivalent to removing 475 cars from the road or powering 408 homes each year.