Night light project saves money and the planet

Gloucestershire County Council is on target to save more than £200,000 and cut carbon by almost 1,400 tonnes in the first year of its night lighting project.

In February 2009, the council launched a scheme to turn off some street lights in rural areas and market towns between midnight and 5.30am.

This was followed in April 2009 by a street light dimming scheme where high wattage bulbs were dimmed by 35% between 10:00pm and 5:30am.

Both schemes have been extremely successful with £202,760 savings and a carbon reduction of 1,392 tonnes – enough to boil 90 million kettles.

In total 59 parish and town councils have already taken part in the night lighting project with 32 more signed up to start the scheme.

So far 4,556 lights have been adapted for part night lighting with another 2,440 awaiting conversion.

In addition 9,540 high wattage lamps have been converted to dim after peak traffic periods have ended.

Southern Electric Contracting completed the work and local company Micatron UK Ltd, based in Upper Rissington, provide the equipment for both schemes.

Both companies have worked well with the council and their continued cooperation has helped the projects progress so well.

Cllr Stan Waddington, cabinet member for environment, said: “As a council we’ve committed to reducing our carbon footprint and our energy usage and these projects have done just that.

“This is an excellent result which has only been made possible with the support of our contractor and equipment supplier, but more importantly with the cooperation of parish and town councils across the county.

“Looking for new and innovative ways of saving money and cutting carbon is something we will be focussing on from now on and this is a great start.

“I look forward to seeing the projects progress in future.”

Each local council has a bespoke scheme tailored to the needs of their area so the volume and locations of part night lighting is decided in consultation with them.

Gloucestershire’s scheme has being hailed as best practise by other councils across the UK with 24 local authorities asking for information on our projects.

The scheme has also been praised by the County Surveyors’ Society, which represents local authority chief officers and was shortlisted for a Guardian Public Sector Service awards.

Time lapse motion capture - Thursday 12 June 2008 - 9.45pm to 10.15pm

See high resolution version here.

Press Release

Dimming down to save money and the planet

Dimming
From Wednesday 15th April, work will commence on dimming many of the councils high wattage street lights for part of the night to reduce carbon emissions and save money.

Across the county 10,000 of the 59,000 streetlights will be dimmed by 35% from 10.00pm to 5.30am.

The move will save £210,000 per year and cut emissions by 28% saving more than 980 tonnes of CO2 per annum.

Part Night
This follows on from, and is in addition to, the already successful partnight switch off of some streetlights in rural areas and market towns, which was launched in February.

Gloucestershire County Council is already achieving some of the £110,000 it will save each year when conversion of 7,000 lights to part night lighting is complete.

This will reduce carbon emissions by 400 tonnes per annum - the equivalent of boiling 26 million kettles.

Gloucestershire's part nigh lighting scheme is being hailed as best practice by other councils across the UK.

Before starting the overall programme of reducing lighting, the council invited Gloucestershire Police to comment on the proposals regarding safety for pedestrians and motorists and they have confirmed our scheme is safe.

Cllr Stan Waddington, cabinet member for environment, said "We have mad a firm commitment to reduce our carbon emissions and pioneering schemes like this one do just that. Saving energy is a top priority in this day and age and I am extremely proud that Gloucestershire County Council is able to say we're doing our bit.