Liverpool to light up with energy-saving LED scheme

A multi-million pound scheme is to begin this week that will see almost two thousand Liverpool streets fitted with new LED lights.

A total of 15,000 street lights, serving 1,890 streets, are to be fitted with the “white light” energy saving bulbs over the next year.

Phase one of the £7m programme began in Fazakerley, in June 2014, with 12,000 lights changed across 1,800 streets reducing carbon emissions by 1,500 tonnes and saving the city more than half a million pounds

Now the second phase is to begin where the city council has developed its Home for A Pound scheme. The programme will then roll out to Croxteth and the rest of the city before ending in Speke this Autumn.

Liverpool City Council has made the move away from the orange sodium lights in its drive to make Liverpool a greener city and cut the city’s carbon footprint.

Approximately £2.6m is spent by Liverpool City Council per annum on the energy costs associated with running the 57,000 street lights and illuminated signs and bollards across the city.

The upkeep of old street lighting is costly both in terms of energy consumption and ongoing maintenance costs, and this is money that could be invested elsewhere as the city council tackles a 68% cut to its 2010-2020 budget.

Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson said: “LED street lighting not only improves the lighting across the city it makes our streets safer and our city cleaner.

“Already through phase one we have made our city a healthier place to live by saving 1,500 tonnes of carbon emissions and achieved savings of more than half a million pounds.

“Our maintenance costs will also reduce by £2.7m overall over the next five years once all of the street lights have been converted. We can then reinvest this saving in to other key services and communities at a time when unprecedented cuts are forcing us to make some heart-breaking decisions.”

Liverpool City Council is working with SSE Enterprise to roll out the new phase of LED street lighting.

The implementation programme has identified the oldest street lights to be replaced first and will begin in Webster Road, Wavertree which next week is to feature in a new three-part Channel 4 documentary on the Homes for a Pound Scheme at 9pm on Wednesday, 14 February.

The Project Manager for SSE Enterprise, John Bate said: “This is an exciting opportunity for SSE Enterprise to work in partnership with the Council to reduce their energy and ongoing cost of its street lighting whilst making a dramatic improvement to the quality of light for its residents and communities.”

This second phase will reduce the energy consumption for these lights by 82%, cutting the council’s energy bill by a further £260,000 a year. There will also be a reduction in carbon of about 1,300 tonnes, bringing a saving of £21,000 and there will be maintenance savings of approximately £47,000 a year.

The LED scheme will heavily reduce the council’s carbon footprint which, according to recent government statistics, has already achieved a staggering 18% reduction in carbon emissions since 2012.

And thanks to a number of energy saving initiatives and investment in renewables, that cut could double to 35% by 2020 – far surpassing the 20% target set by the EU Covenant of Mayors, with the Mayor of Liverpool saying the city should aim to be the greenest city in the UK.

Since 2012 Liverpool has seen a 550% rise in registered renewable energy installations (from 589 to 3,131) and has produced 558,000 fewer tonnes of CO2 at a rate of 70,000 tonnes per year – the same volume as 280,000 double decker buses!

Liverpool Waterfront