The City of Calgary will be wrapping up its year long pilot project on LED street lights in the next few weeks. Last February, the City installed LED bulbs from seven different manufacturers (LED Roadway, Ruud, Lumen, Elumen Lighting Networks, Dialight, Deco and Leotek was added into the mix in November) in Brentwood.

While there is currently no funding for a city-wide deployment of LED bulbs, the objective of the pilot project is to evaluate electricity savings associated with various LED lighting fixtures and to determine whether the technology aligns with the City’s long term street light upgrade strategy.

In 2002 the City began replacing the “bubble” street lights with a newer flat lens design by EnviroSmart. The benefit was two-fold: It focused the light downward towards the street reducing light pollution and due to the lower wattage bulb it cut the electrical use by nearly half on residential streets. The upgrade to the flat lens resulting in $1.7M in annual electrical cost savings. The cost of that upgrade will be paid off by the time this current LED pilot project ends.

The flat lens resulted in about $45 savings per street light and by comparison the LED bulbs would save about $15 per street light. A further $15 would be saved on maintenance costs for the LED bulbs as they would last longer. Calgary is well suited for LED street lights as the pole spacing is quite tight in much of the city. The “over-lighting” of Calgary may have been inefficient in the past, but it may allow LED fixtures which tend to have a tighter beam pattern to be installed in the next few years.

If you want to check out the LED street light project in Brentwood, check out the following map on the City of Calgary website: LED Streetlight Pilot Project Map We’ve also included a few pictures after the jump to show the whiteness of the light, it looks great and reduces electricity usage to boot.