COUNCIL IN TOP THREE IN ENERGY SAVING LEAGUE
Written by author on September 6, 2016
Members of the Council’s Economy, Environment and Infrastructure committee will hear how successful the council’s street lighting replacement scheme is.
The report will be presented to councillors at the meeting on 13 September and will also state that the scheme will be achieved one year ahead of schedule.
A report from the Scottish Futures Trust stated that local authorities in Scotland could save up to 70% on lighting bills by switching to LED street lighting.
Dumfries and Galloway Council was a leading light with this initiative, implementing LED technology since 2013 with other authorities following the lead. As a result, the council now sits in the top three of the Scottish Council’s league table for both energy reduction and the number of lights replaces with LEDs.
The region can also boast to having the Galloway Dark Sky Park and the first Dark Sky community at Moffat and in both these instances, LED lights have contributed to achieving the Dark Sky status.
the result is that our energy and carbon consumption has fallen by 28%. This results in a 28% reduction in energy bills equating to £255k per annum and a reduction in carbon of 971 equivalent tonnes. This is in line with the council’s Carbon Management Plan 2 targets.
In technical terms, the light emitted from our LEDs is white light which gives better colour rendition and makes the streets safer for the public. The bulbs light up immediately when switched on and have an average life span of 20 years, whereas a traditional sodium lamp would last only three years.
Chairman Colin Smyth, said: “The street lighting replacement scheme is a great example of the council investing money to improve services for our local communities and reaping long term benefits. This project has succeeded in reducing energy and maintenance costs for the Council as well as helping the Council achieve its carbon reduction targets.
“The new lights last 17 years longer than the traditional lights – this reduces resident’s frustrations with faulty street lights.
“We are now half way through this project and 48% of the street lights across our region have now been swapped to new LED lights, and more good news is that the remainder of the lights will be replaced a year ahead of schedule, with all lights being switched in the next three years.”
