Hampshire, a county located along the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom, is now a step closer to achieving its goal of reducing carbon emissions, thanks to its local council approving the proposal to convert existing streetlights into more energy efficient light-emitting diode (LED) lamps for its two national parks.
The project, which will cost around £1 million, involves the replacement of approximately 3,600 traditional streetlights to LED lamps, which are not only more energy efficient, but also have the ability to be dimmed. The LEDs are provided Urbis and WRTL, and will be distributed across the New Forest and South Downs National Parks.
Proponents of the project estimate that the new LED park lights will lead to £24,000 in energy savings each year—of course, that figure will depend on how high or low the cost of electricity will be. Moreover, the LEDs are also expected to help reduce Hampshire’s carbon emissions by up to 138 metric tonnes.
The public has thankfully met the new initiative with open arms. Graham Bryant, Hampshire Astronomical Group chairman and a member of the Campaign for Dark Skies, an organisation that seeks to solve the problem of light pollution, notes that LED lights are better since they are more controllable.
He points out that LEDs are capable of being tweaked to display most of its light towards the ground, instead of towards the sky, as is the case with conventional streetlights that throw as much as 30 percent of their light upwards.
The initial phase of Hampshire’s retrofit project will begin on May 2013 in Petersfield, and September 2013 in Brockenhurst. The target completion date of the project is set for March 2015.
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