LED lighting saves millions


A changeover to LED street lighting is underway across Blacktown; a move that will shed a “greener” light on the streets and save the community millions of dollars in electricity bills.

 “Changing over 2,250 older and less efficient street lights will save $4.3 million over the next 20 years,” said the Mayor of Blacktown City, Councillor Stephen Bali.

 “Old, inefficient mercury vapour lights will be replaced with energy efficient LED lights, which are cheaper to run and more sustainable.

“The changeover will not happen overnight, the old lights will be changed as they reach the end of their useful life.

“There is also a huge environmental saving,” Mayor Bali said.

“By swapping an old mercury vapour lamp for a new LED lamp you instantly reduce energy consumption by 77% for that particular light - making a huge cut to our carbon footprint.

“It’s a change that will cut greenhouse gas emissions by over 14,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over 20 years.

“That’s the equivalent to lighting over 17,000 Australian homes, heating and cooling over 7,000 homes, and taking nearly 3,200 cars off the road each year.”

Changing over to LED lighting is being carried out as part of the Light Years Ahead project, which is run by the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (WSROC).

Altogether some 13,000 street lights will be changed in nine Western Sydney local government areas – Blacktown, Blue Mountains, Fairfield, Hawkesbury, The Hills, Holroyd, Liverpool, Parramatta and Penrith.

WSROC President, Councillor Tony Hadchiti says the project will bring many benefits to councils and residents.

“This is the biggest street lighting replacement project NSW has ever seen. We have 126,955 street lights in our nine councils,” Councillor Hadchiti said.

“Public lighting costs millions of dollars each year, with street lighting dominating 55% of our councils’ energy costs. 

“We hope this project is the start of future upgrades, so we can continue the great work we’ve started.”

This project received funding from the Australian Government.

For more information visit Blacktown City Council