Some 200,000 street lights across Australia have been fitted out with the latest LED technologies, as part of a concerted effort to transition toward a greater level of sustainability and specific energy efficiency targets.
Among the cities involved are Perth, Brisbane, Hobart, and Adelaide which have all implemented clear strategies to move towards installing state of the art options in relation to energy efficient street lighting. Melbourne, for instance, is poised to replace about 14,000 lights over the next five-year period in a move to boost maintenance and energy ratings.
“The great thing with smart lighting is that it’s all going to be low energy,” noted Ian Dryden, the City of Melbourne’s Team Leader of Industrial Design. Dryden addressed the Australian Smart Lighting Summit in Melbourne, saying “not only does it communicate with itself very well, however it also turns on and off with the flick of a switch.”
Overall, some 50 local city councils descended at the conference to swap ideas and debate the ins and outs of launching so-called smart lighting solutions. The summit featured a host of presentations from an array of local councils and lighting designers, lifting the veil on a number of urban lighting initiatives currently being introduced nationwide.
Councils from the state of Victoria are said to lead the pack in the installation of smart lighting technology, with the ‘Lighting the Regions’ project aiming to replace more than 23,000 street lights in partnership with 16 local councils across the state. The scheme is expected to save local councils A$57 million over the next two decades.
Among other recent initiatives are the ‘Great South Coast Street Smart Lighting’ program which will change up to 7,500 street lights into energy efficient LED lighting across south-west Victoria. The programs are partially-funded under the Federal Government’s ‘Community Energy Efficiency’ scheme.
