Friday 1 April 2022

Bristol unveils £12m plan to light up streets with LEDs

Bristol City Council has unveiled plans to invest up to £12 million to upgrade its street lighting network in a bid to reduce carbon emissions and save money on energy bills.

The project would include the replacement of around 29,000 old street lights with LEDs, which are expected to help the council save around £1.8 million a year in energy and maintenance costs.

It could also save almost 13,000 tonnes of carbon emissions over 10 years, in addition to reducing light pollution in Bristol.

The proposals, which include the implementation of a central management system that would enable the lighting network to be monitored and controlled remotely, are set to go before cabinet next week.

If approved, the LED rollout programme will commence in November 2022 and completed over three years.

Councillor Don Alexander, Cabinet Member for Transport said: “With the climate emergency and energy bills rising across the UK, it has never been more important to find ways to reduce our energy consumption across the city.

“Making an upfront investment to speed up our switch over to LED street lighting is a simple way to make energy savings of up to 50%, which is good news for the environment and will dramatically reduce our energy bills.

“This is an exciting project that uses smart city technology, which will make sure our street lighting network is responsive, reliable and fit for purpose for years to come.”