Across the Metropolitan Washington region, local governments have actively transitioned conventional high-energy consuming high-pressure sodium and mercury vapor light bulbs to light-emitting diodes (LEDs). In the process, they have realized economic savings to their bottom lines through improved efficiencies and reductions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants. In addition, local governments are recognizing the potential economic, environmental and social benefits of addition holistic re-purposing of streetlights. The inclusion of photovoltaic charging arrays, electric vehicle charging portals, air pollution detection sensors and battery storage possibilities are among the attributes cities of the region are exploring.

Across the Atlantic, cities such as Berlin and Bottrop also have experimented with repurposed streetlights that fuse LED lighting, EV charging, air pollution detection and other innovative applications that have reaped economic, environmental and social benefits. The City of Bottrop has replaced over 1,200 conventional luminaires with LEDs and equipped the streetlights with monitors to detect air pollutants. The Berlin start-up Ubitricity, has innovated an integrated electric vehicle charging technology that integrates the battery of electric vehicle with innovative billing.

In the United States, firms such as Clear World also are implementing LED streetlights equipped with solar charge controllers, DC/AC inverters and rechargeable lithium-ion battery storage technologies.

Please join the Northern Virginia Regional Commission, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and Clean Energy Solutions for a discussion of integrated LED lighting holistic streetlight conversion.