Northumberland Council cuts carbon with LED street lights

In Northumberland after the project was completed, it had resulted in a reduction of carbon emissions of around 2,700 tonnes between April 2015 and March 2021, the equivalent of taking over 600 cars off the road.

The overall street lighting energy bill (including some streetlights that were not modernised as part of this project) halved, from £2.2 million to £1.1 million a year. Part of these savings are used to repay the ‘Invest to Save’ loan, leaving the council with savings of around £300,000 per year.

As well as cutting carbon and costs, the new LED streelights offer additional benefits:

• Reduced light pollution: The LED lights were selected and fitted to ensure that roads and footpaths are well lit whilst also minimising light pollution. The lights are dimmed between midnight and 6am to reduce costs whilst also limiting the intrusion of light into people’s homes and gardens and reducing the impact on moths and other nocturnal wildlife.
• Reduced maintenance costs; the council report that reported faults have dropped from up to 300 per day to ‘a handful’, resulting in substantial cost savings.
• Improved crime detection: LEDs also support methods of better crime detection as the lights improve images captured at night from CCTV, as well as allowing clothing colours and car registration numbers to be more easily identified helping to make streets safer.