Glasgow begins switch to LED street lights after agreeing a £6.3m loan with Green Investment Bank to swap first 10,000 lamps to energy-efficient LEDs. The LED lights last about seven times longer than standard bulbs and are expected to use half the energy of the old versions, paying for themselves through energy savings while saving more than 18,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over the next 18 years. The finance package the GIB provided to Glasgow has been designed to finance public sector energy-efficiency projects. In agreeing the deal with Glasgow, GIB has standardised the process so other local authorities can use it to convert their street lighting, lowering the upfront cost. According to the GIB, more than 100 councils have expressed interest in LEDs, but currently fewer than 10 per cent of the UK’s 7.4 million street lamps are fitted with the technology. It says a nationwide switch to LEDs could cut the £300m a year councils currently spend to switch on street lights and prevent up to 475,000 tonnes of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere – the equivalent of taking more than 200,000 cars off the road.
LED Street Light about to be installed in Edinburgh