Replace the city's existing street lighting with Dark Sky-compliant LEDs, modifying any city franchise/utility agreement and adding smart grid attributes.
Note that the Minnesota Buildings, Benchmarks and Beyond (B3) website allows cities to track energy use of street lighting whose electricity bills the city pays.
Franchise agreements represent a largely unused opportunity for municipalities to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy, and some franchise agreements even create disincentives for energy efficiency.
The comprehensive listing of LED streetlight resources by CERTs covers paybacks, bulb longevity, light trespass, maintenance cost savings, total cost-savings calculators, research in Minnesota, 'how-to' manuals, specifications and more.
Use the International Dark-Sky AssociationBad Streetlightsguide to promote reduced/smarter outdoor lighting. See the GreenStep Dark Skies best practices for more.
Negotiate phased-in LED replacement of existing street lighting technology not owned by the city; replace 1/3 of lights.
Include in a utility franchise or contract mandatory lamp replacement with LEDs; assure all lighting is Dark-Sky compliant; replace 2/3 of lights; use B3 to track energy use of street lighting whose electricity bills the city pays.
Replace 100% of lights; estimate and report annual cost/energy/maintenance savings of replacements; report smart grid attributes of street lighting and light poles (such as auto/sensor dimming, video display panels).
Who's doing it
Circle Pines - 3 star
Date action report first entered:
Date of last report update:
Year action initially completed: 2016
Implementation details:
We took it upon ourselves to replace all of the street lights with LED's. Our partners with Connexus and Xcel did not object to the replacements so all of the city street lights have been converted.
Outcome measures/metrics/money saved:
We are working on estimating the cost savings as we started changing out lights in 2016 and have done a section of the city every year so it will take us a little while to get these statistics.
Effective 2021, East Grand Forks Water and Light Department converted all of its residential, commercial, and industrial streetlights into LEDs. This was a capital project that started in 2015
The City of Fridley partnered with Xcel Energy to replace 870 overhead lights with Dark Sky-compliant LED lights in the City.
Outcome measures/metrics/money saved:
The changeout of 870 lights is expected to save 27,468.6 kilowatt hours of energy per month, which equals $482.52 off of the City's energy bill and 28,951.90 lbs of CO2 removed from the atmosphere monthly
Xcel Energy replaced all 58 high pressure sodium street lights with LED equivalents (Feb 2017). 42 100 Watt HPSV were replaced with 39 Watt LED; 16 150 Watt HPSV were replaced with 65 Watt LED. Anticipated kWh savings = 1727/mo; CO2 lbs/kWh avoided = 1820/mo.
New Ulm Public Utilities have replaced all existing street lighting to LED technology. Most LED converted streetlights range from 45-68 watts/5,030-7430 lumens all the way to 135 watts/15,000 lumens.
When HPS bulbs were used, these numbers ranged from 50 to 400 watts to capture the same number of lumens. The dramatic difference in wattage range due to LED design efficiency has resulted in a savings of 1,419,120 kWh (kilowatt hours) and 324 kW (kilowatts) since the conversion program began in 2012. A total of 3,622 streetlight fixtures have been changed to LED. This number included changes to existing lighting and new developments within the community. Additionally, dark sky compliant lighting has been installed when possible. All street lighting 26 to 31 feet high are dark sky compliant in New Ulm. Lighting installed is also capable of lumen adjustment if light in a particular area is excessive.
Between 2013 and 2018 Duluth replaced the majority of their standard street lights with LEDs. In 2016 an additional project was done to install LED bulbs in all decorative fixtures in areas such as Canal Park and along the Lake Walk. Replacing all corn cob lights with LEDs began in 2017 and is nearly complete. All lighting purchased is Dark Sky compliant per city policy.
Minnesota Power has been replacing their burnt out sodium light fixtures in the city with LEDs since 2015, and recently announced that they would switch from installing 4000K LEDs to softer 2700K LEDs.
Outcome measures/metrics/money saved:
Descriptive File:
Descriptive links:
For more information contact:
Alex Jackson, Energy Coordinator (City staff) | ajackson@DuluthMN.gov | 218-730-4433
Marshall Municipal Utilities policy is to replace all street light fixtures with new energy efficient fixtures as part of it's planned electric system improvement project.
Outcome measures/metrics/money saved:
Nearly all of Marshall's Street lights have been replaced with new Dark-sky compliant energy efficient light fixtures as part of Marshall Municipal Utilities electric conversion project.
• City established a phased-in LED replacement of existing street lighting technology for city and non-city fixtures.
• Replaced 1/5 of street lighting with LED lighting; on pace to meet the 1 Star requirement by 04/2019
Outcome measures/metrics/money saved:
The City of Warren has an established policy to replace all streetlights with LED lighting as street project take place.
The city council approved at the January 8, 2024, meeting the lighting portion of the CSAH 3/66 Pedestrian & Intersection Improvements would include 14 lights at the roundabout and 4 pedestrian lights at other intersections. Each light would have banner arms, a flag holder, an outlet and would be designed as preferred by the Dark Sky Association.
Street lights along First Street (one of the two major commercial streets) were replaced with Dark Sky compliant LED fixtures. Lights on the other major commercial street will similarly be replaced with LED fixtures during reconstruction of MN Hwy 371 next year. Future lights will also be LED.
The city of Rochester, Minnesota, is poised to initiate a significant LED streetlight installation project on city roadways. The proposed project is intended to replace up to 300 to 400 existing 175 watt mercury vapor streetlights with LED streetlight fixtures. The project is funded by an award of $180,000 from the US Department of Energys Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) program combined with a 20% funding match from the municipal utility, Rochester Public Utility (RPU). RPU has budgeted a total of approximately $225,000 in funds for the purchase and installation of the new LED streetlights.
The City of St. Anthony and Xcel Energy annually review the technology available to replace the existing street lights with LED technology. Xcel Energy anticipates, within the next two years, the technology will be available and economical to justify the change-out.
There have been discussions along the line of facilitating rapid replacement of inefficient street lighting with Dark Sky-compliant LEDs, modifying any city franchise/utility agreement and adding smart grid attributes, but no decisions have been made. Utility has recently offered Rebate incentives that are independent of the franchise agreement that will act as an incentive.
The City of South St. Paul currently replaces all outdoor light fixtures in need of replacing with LED fixtures on all City owned buildings. While we do not have a formal policy, we find it to be a best practice, be energy efficient, and saving the City money in the long run. This takes place at City Hall, the Public Works facility, the SSP Public Library, the SSP Airport, the Doug Woog Arena and within the SSP Park’s system.
It fits into the City’s overall goal of sustainability and noting that the change is made at the time to replace which is not only more cost effective but less wasteful than immediately changing over all fixtures (including ones that currently work just fine).