Pittsburgh Street Lights Update

Yesterday, Pittsburgh moved one step closer to its dream of converting all of its 40,000 street lights to energy efficient doppelgangers. The city received an $816,000 grant which will pay for upgrading about 3,000 street lights.

The first phase of the conversion, involving about 3,000 lights in 30 neighborhood business districts, will save about $110,000 in energy and maintenance costs each year. An estimate of the energy savings in phase one was not provided.

My back-of-the-envelope calculations bring that in at an 8-year payback period. Not too shabby. From informal polling of the South Side light experiment and a University of Pittsburgh recommendation, the city will be going forward with LED lights in the conversion. According to the Pitt study, the city should save about $1.7 Million per year on energy and maintenance costs when all the lights are converted (about 40% of the current cost).

Green Is Good Money for Mitchell's

The long-term (and short-term) benefits of being green are being felt throughout the region in the most surprising of places. Jim Mitchell of Mitchell's Restaurant in downtown Pittsburgh caught wind of the green movement when he realized he was giving away his restaurant's used fryer oil for free. Mitchell's Restaurant has been in business for over 100 years. They offer a classic menu with highlights of burgers, meatloaf and beer. Jim Mitchell, himself, will tell you that the only green he cares about is money. So why is this restaurant going green, environmentally? Because Jim realized it would save him money.

The restaurant spends $60,000 per year on electricity and gas, and because of the recent economic downswing Jim was considering laying off some long-standing employees. Last week, he received a free energy audit. He's already changed his light bulbs to energy efficient bulbs and has exterior LED lights to illuminate his downtown corner. Through contacts in the mayor's office and the county, he's lining up for grants and loans. He's waiting on a proposal from a local company to convert his fryer grease into electricity. To be honest, when I met at Green Drinks last Friday, he was as excited about greening up his restaurant as a kid in a candy store.

If a bar/restaurant that's been open in the same family for over 100 years can change its ways to be green while saving money, why can't every business in the city?

If you know of any other success stories in the Pittsburgh region, let me know. I'd love to chronicle them here and put a spotlight on Pittsburgh's innovative small businesses.

Lastly, if you want to encourage our small businesses to continue on a green path, the best way is to put your money where your mouth is. Stop by Mitchell's for happy hour, a post-Penguins game drink, or for a comfort food lunch downtown.

Happy New Green Year Pittsburgh

Is this the year Pittsburgh makes it onto a top green cities list or gains us a major bike-friendly nod? We're getting off to an auspicious start.

First, a landmark study commissioned by the city was released this week which affirmed that LED street lights are the most efficient, green and money-saving option. The results of this study should kick the Pittsburgh streetlight conversion process into high gear.

Second, Pittsburgh unveiled new secure and bright green bike parking. For a mere $100 per year, you can have a reserved biking space downtown. With the impending lease of Pittsburgh Parking Authority parking garages (and resulting car parking price increases), I expect these will only get more valuable.

Third, even Newsweek is getting in on the Sandcastle-bashing, with an article on how the international amusement park company is holding up the last one mile of the Great Allegheny Passage. Maybe this is the year the trail is finally completed?

The New and Improved Incandescent: a case study of the way government mandates can spur innovation

It's an easy position, being anti-government, but on occasion an issue arises where only the federal government has the power to step in and bring about the changes we need. Energy efficiency, energy independence, and climate change are all perfect examples of how, absent government mandates, the free market fails to get it done and has failed to get it done time after time. Now, occasionally the government does back the wrong horse, corn ethanol is a perfect example of such an instance, but the case of the incandescent light bulb is indeed a case study of how the government can enact policy that takes a product that should have been obsolete half a century ago, and replaces it with a new technology or new and improved version. When it was announced back in 2007 that the incandescent light bulb, at least in its current form and efficiency, would be phased out by the year 2012, Conservative radio hosts across the country and in Pittsburgh (local right wingers Quinn and Rose) freaked out about the news. But have no fear right wingers and lovers of incandescent light bulbs. Because of the mandate, manufacturers have been rushing to develop new technologies that have already proven to make the old incandescent bulbs 30% to 50% more energy efficient. The impact of having the majority of our residential lighting, be it incandescents, CFLs, or LEDs, at 30%, 50%, and even 100% greater efficiency, is huge in the grand scheme of things. Now that, my friends, is change and government that we can believe in.

The Light Thing

In December, Councilman Bill Peduto introduced a plan to upgrade all of Pittsburgh 40,000 street lights to more energy efficient models. Here's an update on the street light progress. The councilor's office let me know that the street lights are in their testing phases.

"The streetlight initiative test phase is ongoing. Lights were installed throughout the South Side in the last month. We installed lights from more than 45 different responses to the City's test phase request. We have experts from Pitt, Carnegie Mellon, and Penn State working on this project, monitoring the lights that were installed, writing a new lighting code, etc."

And the competition is fierce. Whoever wins this lighting battle gets a very lucrative $25 Million contract and some major press.

Here are 2 of the 45:

• Imbutech: Already installed LED lighting at the Allegheny County jail and is bidding for the city wide job.
  
• Orion: A flourescent lighting company out of Wisconsin performed well. "[T]he Orion fixtures reduced energy consumption 65% while boosting light output by an average of 300%, compared with the city's existing street lights."
  

You've got to admit the city's come along ways since the days when the street lights used to shine all day to cut through the smoke.

LEDs + Solar Power = Hope for Rural Africa

This recent New York Times article on LED lights and Africa caused me to reflect on how the climate change challenge is so much bigger than the United States and the choices we make with regards to sustainability issues, paper or plastic, how we commute or light our homes, etc, etc. Don't get me wrong - CFLs are great and so are hybrid vehicles, but mainly because they, for the most part, make sense both environmentally and economically. But what about what is going on in the developing nations, particularly the rural areas in India and the African continent? Why do they matter, you ask? Well, did you know that 30% of the global population does not have access to electricity? That is 1.6 billion people, or more than 5 times the population of the United States. Now, imagine if we were someday able to figure out how to get half of those people electricity, but instead of electricity from clean energy sources it came from dirty coal plants. I hope you understand that no matter what we do to combat climate change here in the US or over in Europe, how the developing world, the high growth regions in the rural Asia and Africa, is electrified matters more because if we allow these nations to go the way of China - with its haphazard construction of toxic spewing coal power plants, all hope of preventing catastrophic climate change will be lost.

What can we do? Well, to start the focus on climate change should be on the bottom of the pyramid. The people in these parts of the world, the rural Indian people who do not have electricity, the Rwandans who do not have access to reliable source of drinking water, will hopefully have access to electricity and clean water one day. The best thing we can do to help is to support the organizations that are already bringing clean sources of electricity to rural parts of these countries, or, if you are ambitious, you could start your own venture that aims to bring low cost renewable energy solutions to these remote areas.

While researching this issue it seemed that Africa is the focus, since 60% of the 1.6 billion without electricity are live somewhere in that continent. Solar Light for Africa is an American faith based non-profit that has been working for years on raising money so that its members can go on missions to Africa, where they install solar power systems in the rural villages. They have had some successes but being as small as they are they need some help. The World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC) have joined forces to form Lighting Africa, an NGO that partners with global businesses and entrepreneurs to bring renewable lighting solutions to African villages. Lighting African sounds very promising but like many World Bank endeavors the intent is good but the results, or the follow through, tend to be another thing. I was disappointed when I read that the World Bank led venture only had a budget of $12 million, although, I can't say that I too surprised by that low figure. Below is a blurb from the Lighting Africa website, followed by a youtube clip that shows you just how using a simple LED light can make a world of difference in the life of an African family.

Every year, African households and small businesses spend upwards of $17 billion on lighting, dominated by fuel-based sources such as kerosene, a costly an inefficient alternative. However, despite these huge expenditures – many households spend as much as 30% of their disposable income on fuel-based lighting – consumers receive little value in return. Fuel-based lighting is inefficient, provides limited and poor quality light, and exposes users to significant health and fire hazards. Exacerbating this problem, fuel-based lighting also produces Greenhouse Gases (GHGs), leads to increased indoor air pollution and associated health risks, inhibits productivity and jeopardizes human safety.

I realize that these last two posts by James and I have opened up a huge can of worms, because now we're not just talking about being green here in Pittsburgh, PA, in North Carolina, or in Austin, Texas. We're going to start talking more about green and clean energy on a global scale, because as I said above, if the developing nations don't grow and develop with a clean energy infrastructure, nothing else we do to halt climate change really matters.

Councilman Bill Peduto announces the Pittsburgh model of 21st century urban lighting

PITTSBURGH – This morning, City Council will hold a national conversation on urban lighting. The hearing was set as a result of Councilman Peduto’s proposal to convert all 40,000 street lights in Pittsburgh to LEDs. Councilman Peduto now intends to create the Pittsburgh model of 21^st century urban lighting, a model that other cities will follow worldwide.

Representatives from the William J. Clinton Foundation’s Clinton Climate Initiative, Carnegie Mellon University, and national innovators from Philips, Johnson Controls, Leotek, Lightolier, Ceramtec, Appalachian Lighting Systems, Condor Manufacturing, and Beta Lighting will be in attendance

“LED lighting has proven to cut energy use by as much as 80%, saving energy and taxpayers millions of dollars,” said Councilman Peduto. “This is one of the greatest ways we can reduce our carbon footprint and make Pittsburgh a worldwide leader.”

WHAT: City Council Hearing on Urban Lighting

WHEN: Monday, February 9, 2009 @ 10:00 AM

WHERE: City Council Chambers, 5^th Floor, City-County Bldg

Pittsburgh Councilman's plan to convert all of the city's street lamps to LEDs could save the city of Pittsburgh $3 million annually

Earlier today I received an email from the office of Pittsburgh city councilman Bill Peduto announcing an ambitious plan that will reduce Pittsburgh's carbon footprint while saving the city millions in electricity costs. Peduto, who has been the only city legislator to propose green legislation of any sort over the last few years, wants the city to convert all 40,000 of its street lamps to energy efficient LED lighting. The cost of the program will be around $24 million and will be paid using a combination of the annual costs savings and funding from the state's Guaranteed Energy Savings Agreement. Pittsburgh would join cities such as Austin, Raleigh (home LED manufacturer CREE), and Toronto as major cities who have adopted LED lighting on a large scale. According to Peduto, Pittsburgh would be the largest city in the US to roll out a complete conversion to LED lighting. This would be great news for Pittsburgh's green agenda, especially in light of today's Pittsburgh Penguin's press conference, where they announced the 21 year naming rights deal for their new arena, which will be known as the Clean Coal Center.

Check out this Wikipedia entry to learn more about Light Emitting Diodes.

Below is a copy of the Peduto plan for a bright and green Pittsburgh:

A Bright, Green Idea for Pittsburgh

The Pittsburgh LED Project

Saving Tax Dollars While Saving the Environment

THE PLAN:

Over six months ago, Councilman William Peduto launched a trial of LED lights along the Walnut Street business district. Today, he is submitting a proposal for Pittsburgh to replace all 40,000 existing street lights with 200 Watt LED lights.

THE BENEFITS:

1) Green – Financial

Pittsburgh currently spends $3.2 million each year in electricity costs for our street lights. With the reduction of 137W of energy used by each of the 40,000 lights in the City of Pittsburgh, taxpayers will save $1.92 million per year in energy costs.

Pittsburgh currently spends approximately $1 million each year maintaining our street lights. An HPS bulb has 2 - 4 year life span versus 10 - 15 years for an LED light. Additionally, an LED fixtures burns out one LED at a time, which is in contrast to the current lights HPS lights which completely blow out all at once. This is expected to save taxpayers approximately $700,000/year in maintenance costs.

2) Green - Environmental

A 200W LED light only uses 93W of power. However, the existing 150W High Power Sodium (HPS) bulbs use approximately 230W (includes the ballast) of power. Therefore, over the year, the City of Pittsburgh will save 600 kWh of energy. This translates into 984 lbs of carbon dioxide emissions eliminated by switching all lights to LED.

LED lights turn on and off instantly with no warm up time. The existing HPS bulbs have a slow warm up period that is a waste of energy. Additionally, the existing sodium bulbs contain mercury in the ballasts, LED lights have no mercury.

LED lights produce a white light that stimulates the rods and the cones of our eyes. This creates a higher quality white light, while using less energy than the HPS lights that only stimulate the cones of our eyes and produce a yellow-orange light.

THE COST:

Each LED light costs approximately $500 to purchase. Additionally, it would cost about $100 in labor/light in conversion costs. Therefore, the cost to replace 40,000 lights would be approximately $24 million.

PAYING FOR IT:

With a total cost of $24 million and an annual savings of $2,620,000 upon complete conversion, the City can fully payoff the LED conversion in 10.5 years.

Pennsylvania’s Guaranteed Energy Savings Agreement (GESA) can be utilized to cover the upfront costs of the LED conversion. According to the State, “Projects will be implemented where, through simple-payback analysis, cost savings resulting from energy conservation improvements exceed the associated financing. In other words, these guaranteed savings are used to cover operating budget finance payments over a period not to exceed fifteen years.

NEXT STEPS:

The City should issue a Request for Proposals (RFP’s) immediately requesting that all interested companies provide the City with ten test lights to install throughout business districts in the City for a six month trial (February 1, 2009 – July 31, 2009). During the trial period, measurements should be taken to determine the luminous intensity and the energy produced. Solar powered lights and those with photo-sensitive detectors that lessen the light during dusk and dawn should be included in the trial.

The City should award the contract no later than August 31, 2009, based on required conditions of the RFP process, reliability through trial phase, and long term financial and environmental impact. The contract should require work to begin no later than October 1, 2009 and completed by December 31, 2010.

The City should immediately submit an application with the State through the Guaranteed Energy Savings program.

The City should determine programs we can work with to properly dispose of the existing HPS lights. This could be done through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) or a similar program.