The City of Vernon is looking to make progress on one of the near-term goals in its Climate Action Plan.
Plans to replace nearly 1,200 street lights with more efficient LED bulbs are in the works, with a request for proposals (RFP) due to close Friday, May 27.
The project will convert approximately 1,183 streetlights from high-pressure sodium (HPS) to LED fixtures. The city is seeking an electrical contractor to carry out the installations.
“Studies have shown that upgrading the streetlights to LED reduces the electrical load by at least 50 per cent and will provide improved lighting quality for city streets, sidewalks, multi-use paths and walkways and crosswalks in addition to reducing greenhouse gases (GHG),” the document states.
The city worked with RealTeam Energy to take inventory, design a lighting plan and select the fixtures that will best suit the city.
According to the city’s first Climate Action Plan endorsed by council last month, street lights and traffic signals are one of the city’s five main sources of greenhouse gas (GHG), although they account for just one per cent of Vernon’s corporate GHG emissions overall.
A much higher portion of Vernon’s GHG emissions come from buildings (48 per cent). The city has a short-term goal to address those emissions, too, which is to develop a building retrofit program to help residents reduce the climate impact of their homes by installing low-carbon energy systems.
On top of cutting emissions, retrofitting existing buildings is expected to save $2.8 million per year by 2025, according to the action plan.
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