In the race for greater energy efficiency, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are taking on a widening role. The conversion to LEDs is well underway in the home, where they are quickly displacing compact fluorescent lamps, which are a recent replacement for incandescent lamps.


LEDs are also having an impact in the public sphere, where cities and other government entities are searching for large, categorical energy uses that present an opportunity for big gains in efficiency. One such use is street lighting, and Modesto, Calif., is one city embracing the change.


Last fall, Modesto launched a program to retrofit streetlights with LEDs. The city’s public works department launched the Citywide Light Emitting Diode Streetlight Conversion Project in November 2014. The objective of the program is to replace approximately 9,500 high-pressure sodium (HPS) streetlights with LED fixtures. Work is underway and expected to be completed by early summer.


Modesto could save more than $500,000 per year in energy costs once the retrofits are completed. To oversee the project, city officials hired San Francisco-based municipal lighting specialists, Tanko Lighting.


Client lists for companies such as Tanko and other municipal lighting specialists confirm the trend of cities converting to LED streetlights, with the names of dozens of cities from across the country that have already made the transition.


However, other sources reveal that cities still have a long way to go. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Street Lighting Consortium released the results of its Public Street and Area Lighting Inventory Survey in October 2014, which examined public street and other area lighting for cities, utilities and other government entities across the country.


Despite the tremendous potential gains in efficiency and cost savings, local governments are still slow to embrace the technology. According to the survey, only 8 percent of respondents use LEDs as their primary lighting technology, although 62 percent have some use and 30 percent have it as their second most prominent form of lighting.