OREANDA-NEWS. November 01, 2012. The Bay Area Climate Collaborative (BACC) and GE Lighting today announced a project to advance the energy-efficient street-lighting market. The Bay Area Next Generation Streetlight Initiative aims to catalyze the upgrade of over 200,000 municipal streetlights in the region to advanced light-emitting diode (LED) technology.

Through the Bay Area Next Generation Streetlight Initiative, the BACC is developing educational resources and pooling Bay Area-wide interest in LED streetlight conversions with a joint procurement option to secure improved purchase and financing terms on the latest lighting technology. The initiative will serve as a business model that local governments in the Bay Area and beyond can replicate to upgrade streetlights at lower costs while engaging local workforce development. Over five years, the upgrades will deliver up to USD 50 million in reduced costs for local governments, over 100,000 metrics tons of CO2 avoidance, and many jobs.

GE Lighting will support the BACC’s outreach to local governments on the benefits of LED streetlight technology and development of tools and educational resources that facilitate lighting upgrades. GE also will provide its expertise to inform the resources and strategies for the initiative.

GE has long been at the forefront of next-generation energy-efficient ecomagination lighting. The company has invented every major lighting technology, including the world’s first visible LED, which was created 50 years ago this month. GE is currently working with the City of Las Vegas to convert more than 80 percent of the City’s 50,000 streetlights to LED fixtures, which will provide USD 2.7 million in annual savings. The BACC is a public-private initiative of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, launched by regional civic and business leaders to accelerate the Bay Area clean energy economy through high-impact, market-oriented projects that can be replicated and scaled.

“Roadways are the new frontier of the solid-state lighting revolution,” said Steve Briggs, GE Lighting’s global product general manager. “We’re finding that once community leaders understand the LED value proposition—over 50 percent energy savings and 10-plus years of life for significant maintenance cost savings versus older incumbent technologies—a shift to LED becomes a priority. They get to think and act like a CFO, which constituents love, with the additional good-neighbor and environmental benefits that LED systems deliver.”

“LED lighting has been identified as a top opportunity for excellent financial, community and environmental benefits, and GE has tremendous expertise on efficient lighting solutions,” said Rafael Reyes, executive director of the Bay Area Climate Collaborative. “Through our collaboration, we will help local governments save millions of dollars that can be reinvested to strengthen the regional economy.”