Buenos Aires switches to LED lights, saves money

The capital city of Argentina, Buenos Aires, have switched its 125,000 streetlights to LED. This will cut energy consumption by half and will last five times longer. With 13 million inhabitants, it is the second largest city in South America.

To TreeHugger : ” That’s just one city. It’s estimated that if cities around the world made a switch to LED tech like Buenos Aires, savings would add up to €130 billion ($180 billion) in reduced energy costs each year. “

” It would also prevent 670 million tons of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere each year. Not bad for streetlamps! ” This just shows that energy efficiency works.

I hope many other cities around the world will follow their lead and embrace LED technology for lighting as it brings many significant advances over previous streetlights.

Philips, who was selected to replace a majority of the lights after a public bidding process outline them. See the TreeHugger post.

In general, LED lights are fantastic and could save a lot of money globally. As I noted in a previous post :

According to a study carried out in the United States by the local Department of Energy (DOE), the 49 million LED light bulbs already installed helped save a massive $675 million (over 500 million euros) in a single year.

But wait, there is more as if all light bulbs in the United States were replaced by such bulbs, the potential savings could be the absolutely huge amount of $37 billion (27 billion euros) per year !

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But beyond a discussion on energy efficiency, this post can be the perfect time for a reflection on energy conservation. Until what time should monuments be lit ? Should we keep lights on all night long 365 nights a year ?

Dark skies are important for both our environment and our societies.