A Powerful Rx for COVID Budget Shortfalls: LED 街 Light Conversion

关键外卖:

• 城市 are turning to LED street light conversion as a way to meet COVID budget shortfalls.
• Immediate benefits include substantial energy 和 maintenance savings, sustainability.
• A phased approach lets cities make the conversion today while keeping their technology options open.

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As COVID-related budget impacts continue to squeeze municipal revenues 和 strain public services, some cities are turning to LED street light conversion to help balance the books 和 adjust to post-COVID realities. A modern digital street light program is a highly effective way for a city to immediately cut expenses 和 shrink its carbon footprint while improving public safety.

According to a recent survey of the nation’s 300+ largest cities by the Northeast Group LLC, 新投资 LED路灯 总共8美元.2 billion over the next decade. Since the group’s last survey in 2018, the number of cities carrying out full-scale LED conversions has increased from 107 to 185.

Why street lights – 和 why now? Simple economics: an LED conversion can provide immediate 和 substantial savings. The city sees reduced energy costs, a smaller carbon footprint 和 improved public safety.  Taxpayers see more money spent in areas like street maintenance, pothole repair 和 basic services, 和 less spent replacing burned out bulbs 和 paying the energy bill.

“街 lighting can be up to 40% of a city’s energy bills,” observed Benjamin Gardner, president of the Northeast Group, in a February 2021 article in AXIOS, “so you see huge cost savings across the board. Those cost savings will also be reflected in cities’ lower carbon footprints.”

And as cities look for ways to meet sustainability goals for reduced emissions, an LED street light conversion can figure prominently: for many municipalities, street lights are the single largest item on their energy bill.

Energy 和 maintenance savings, sustainability 和 longer useful life – these are the elements of LED路灯’s slam-dunk business case. Yet for many cities, the full return on investment may be still to come. Like our bridges 和 roadways, the nation's street lights are part of an aging infrastructure 和 on average are more than 25 years old. But unlike bridges 和 roadways, upgraded street lights quickly pay for themselves 和 may even become revenue generators.

An LED street light conversion is typically the first step in creating a smart-city digital infrastructure that can support any number of Internet of Things (IOT) sensors 和 devices, 从相机, 麦克风, 演讲者, air quality monitors – the list is almost endless – as well as share information with other nodes in the network 和 respond to instructions from the network.

The potential seems limitless. But while vendors 和 industry experts hash out technology st和ards 和 debate the merits of open-source versus proprietary solutions, an LED street light conversion doesn’t have to wait.

在这一点上, what’s important is to keep your options wide-open,埃里克·哈德斯蒂建议道, 克里族照明’s Product Marketing Manager for 街 Lighting. “You can make a strong case for not locking into a connectivity technology right now 和 instead install a solution that’s future-ready. 这种方式, whatever you decide to do in a year or several years – 和 whatever the industry migrates to in the meantime – you’ll have an installed base that can be easily networked using the prevailing technologies 和 st和ardized protocols.”

与此同时, LED street light conversion is a proven way for cities to counter decreased revenues with a proactive stance that can save millions in energy 和 maintenance costs, drive carbon reduction 和 sustainability goals, 和 provide worry-free service for several times longer than the old technology.

"到时候, those same LED street lights may become an invaluable source of real-time insight to improve quality of life in your community,哈德斯蒂说. “When you look at the benefits, there’s no reason not to embrace a digital conversion right now – 和 every reason to do so.”