Energy Efficiency  -  February 10, 2022

Chicago Streetlight Conversion Project Completed

The city of Chicago replaced its existing street lighting infrastructure with approximately 280,000 street light fixtures with smart LEDs that use less electricity.

Ameresco replaced about 85% of the city’s street lights with smart LEDs, which use 50-75% less electricity and lower associated energy costs in half. These new lights last two to three times as long as traditional High-Pressure Sodium (HPS) lights. The city of Chicago is projected to save $12.4 million in electricity in 2022 and over $100 million in electricity costs throughout the next 10 years.

The $160 million project also seeks to improve public safety in Chicago by providing higher quality, more reliable lighting. 

“Creation of the lighting management system puts us in the forefront of smart cities around the nation,” CDOT Commissioner Gia Biagi said in a statement. “The program has made Chicago a greener city and is providing clearer, more reliable nighttime lighting in every neighborhood. And the smart lighting management is making our operations more efficient, enabling our workforce to respond to outages more quickly when they occur.”

The four-year modernization project was completed in collaboration with the city of Chicago, the Chicago Department of Transportation, Itron, John Burns Construction and Lyons View Manufacturing, a certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) dedicated to creating job opportunities for local Chicago residents with barriers to employment.

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