City of Asheville: Successfully Driving the Adoption of Street Lights in North Carolina

Posted by Nikki Rogan

Being a leader can be exhilarating. Take Cree, for example. We love leading the LED Lighting Revolution. You could even say we find it electrifying. So when we hear US cities, like Asheville, are implementing LED lighting, it pumps us up!

The City of Asheville has initiated North Carolina’s first large-scale deployment of LED street lights. This large-scale deployment, made possible through a grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, allows Asheville to take the necessary steps to improve energy efficiency and reduce its overall carbon footprint.

In the initial phase of the project, completed in June 2011, 730 street lights were replaced with 67-watt to 195-watt LEDway® luminaires. An additional 2,913 LEDway® street lights are currently being installed, and the City anticipates saving 50 percent of current energy use and maintenance costs due to the LED upgrade.

“Upgrading to LED street lights allows us to decrease energy consumption, increase energy efficiency and contribute to the sustainability of our community,” said Maggie Ullman, energy coordinator for the Asheville Office of Sustainability. “This exciting initiative helps affirm Asheville’s role as a leader in carbon footprint reduction.”

Here are just some of the benefits of the Asheville installation project:

• By upgrading all HPS and mercury vapor street lights to LEDway® luminaires, the City anticipates a savings of approximately $260,000 per year from the combined energy and maintenance savings.
• Phase one of the LEDway® luminaires installation reduces the City’s carbon footprint by an estimated one percent and saves approximately $45,000 in energy cost per year.

In addition to saving energy, this installation demonstrates how municipalities and local utilities can work together. “As more municipalities commit to replacing outdated, inefficient lighting with the support of their local utilities, LED adoption and consumer awareness continue to increase,” said Christopher Ruud, President of Ruud Lighting, a Cree Company. “We applaud the City of Asheville and Progress Energy for working together for the benefit of its citizens demonstrating the growing trend of cities and municipalities working together to join the LED lighting revolution.”

Is your city taking the necessary steps to install LED lighting? Tell us about it.

12 Responses to “City of Asheville: Successfully Driving the Adoption of Street Lights in North Carolina”

1. LED lampen says:

   January 23, 2012 at 12:12 pm

   Here in the Netherlands, consumers are switching to LED lights. The government is not doing enough, but that’s my opinion. Some city’s are pioneers such as Asheville. We are still hoping for more LED in the near future.
2. Nikki Rogan says:

   January 23, 2012 at 5:55 pm

   That’s great news that consumers in the Netherlands continue to invest in LED lighting. Hopefully, cities will jump on the bandwagon too!
3. Lighting Geek says:

   February 1, 2012 at 2:43 pm

   Wow, the full spectrum color output illuminating those streets almost make the town look like a model. We’re so used to seeing poor color rendering in those pink/orange sodium vapor, or even some of the new harsh bluish-white LED street lamps. That looks great! Hope to see more.
4. Nikki Rogan says:

   February 1, 2012 at 6:31 pm

   Geoff,

   We completely agree with you. We also hope to see more LED street lights, not only in Asheville, but in other US cities.

   Nikki
5. George says:

   February 20, 2012 at 4:34 pm

   This is an amazing story, finally an actual example of the benefits of LED street lighting! If only stories like this could spread so that more people would hear about it and make a change in their community.
6. Nikki Rogan says:

   February 21, 2012 at 6:19 pm

   Glad you liked the post, George.
   -Nikki
7. Lightbulbs24 says:

   February 23, 2012 at 3:54 pm

   Fantastic light output and what a difference in the light quality, I think its time the United Kingdom start similar projects on a larger scale to get rid us of our horrible orange street lighting!
8. Paul Mitchem says:

   November 13, 2012 at 10:58 am

   I live in Asheville and these lights if anything on a bit too bright and light so much more than the street. I think a design that aims the light so it falls more on the street would have allowed greater spacing and associated savings. I do like the overall design, as I note it sends last light towards the sky. I just can’t sit on my front porch in the dark anymore! Perhaps some tuneable louvers would do the job
9. Led Lampen says:

   December 20, 2012 at 8:35 am

   Nice!
10. Led lampen says:

    February 24, 2013 at 8:19 am

    Here in the Netherlands, consumers are switching to LED lights. Philps, Pharox, Verbatim, Osram and Grandi Led is ferry popular. We work on all types off led strips to.
11. Lampen says:

    April 26, 2013 at 3:02 pm

    For dutch we have some new design led lampen.

    De goedkoopste Lampen & Verlichting vindt u natuurlijk bij Lampen-Expert.nl. Ons assortiment bestaat uit een grote selectie lampen en zijn alleen van de hoogste kwaliteit. Daarbij vindt u bij ons altijd de nieuwste collectie lampen en verlichting van de beste merken zoals Philips, Massive, Briljant en Osram. Bent u op zoek naar designlampen, hanglampen, LED lampen, kinderlampen, designverlichting, bezoek dan eens onze site lampen-expert.nl
12. Lampen says:

    April 26, 2013 at 3:04 pm

    For the dutch people we have some new design led lampen.

    De goedkoopste Lampen & Verlichting vindt u natuurlijk bij Lampen-Expert.nl. Ons assortiment bestaat uit een grote selectie lampen en zijn alleen van de hoogste kwaliteit. Daarbij vindt u bij ons altijd de nieuwste collectie lampen en verlichting van de beste merken zoals Philips, Massive, Briljant en Osram. Bent u op zoek naar designlampen, hanglampen, LED lampen, kinderlampen, designverlichting, bezoek dan eens onze site lampen-expert.nl