The New Plymouth District Council will begin its LED street light replacement project next week.

The streets of Taranaki will burn a little brighter when 7000 streetlights are replaced in the New Plymouth district at a cost of $3.9 million.

The three-year project will switch all of the district's street lamps to LED lights, which are expected to last 20 years.

But the energy savings alone would see the lights pay for themselves within seven years, council's transport manager Carl Whittleston said.

The first stage of the project will start next week in Inglewood. Council hoped to replace the town's 420 streetlights by the new year, Whittleston said.

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In total the council will replace 6700 street lights.

"As soon as Inglewood is completed, we'll move on to Urenui to change over all the streetlights on local roads in that town as well," he said.

The project what the council calls "an invest-to-save initiative" and the new lights would result in 75 per cent less power being used by street lights once the entire district has been switched over.

"On top of that, we'll have a better quality of light – it's a whiter light compared to the yellow light of our current streetlights," Whittleston said.

The initial schedule was for a five-year roll-out across the district. However, the price of parts has lowered since the project was approved and the roll-out could be shortened to three years in total as a result, he said.

The Taranaki Electricity Trust has contributed $100,000 towards the installations in Inglewood and Urenui. Whittleston the TET funding also came with a request for Inglewood and Urenui to be a priority for the new lights roll-out.

NPDC, the New Zealand Transport Agency, and TET have all contributed money to the project.

While the total budget for the project was $3.9m, council expected the final spend to be less than expected with the price of LED lights coming down with tim.

The new lights will not be much different to look at, but the improved light design would mean there would be less glare from the new lights, he said.