Greg Stanley

greg.stanley@naplesnews.com; 239-263-4738

Some of the darkest skies in Florida are set to get a little darker now that Collier County is changing the way it lights up roads.

The county will replace 4,958 fluorescent street lights as it switches to all LED bulbs in a move that will drastically cut energy costs and reduce glare from roads and county buildings.

LED lights have a less intense, more focused ray. They illuminate paths more like the light of the moon than the direct sun, making it easier for the eyes of drivers to adjust to at night.

“I’m of a certain age and am affected by that now,” Commissioner Tim Nance said. “Our glaring streetlights aren’t doing the job. Those lights shine in my eyes. ... And it limits what I can see.”

The county has already started the LED replacements on a stretch of Rattlesnake Hammock Road in East Naples.

“Drive down Rattlesnake while we still have LEDs on one side and street lamps on the other,” Nance said. “The result is astonishing. It is so much more comfortable to drive. What happens is it not only uses less energy, but the light shines where you want it and not where you don’t want it and don’t need it.”

It will cost $3.8 million to make the initial upgrades. But that cost will be more than made up in the coming years, according to county projections.

The new lights will consume about 60 percent less energy, shaving the county’s electricity bill by $345,000 a year. The county estimates it will also save $158,000 in maintenance, since the new lights will last years longer.

The lights will be replaced, not removed, so the new lighting system shouldn’t affect security, said Josh Hammond, application director for the county’s facility management division.

“We worked with both the International Dark-Sky Association and the Sheriff’s Office,” Hammond said. “We think we were really able to bring both those often-competing interests together on this. We think we can make it safer, use less energy and reduce light pollution.”

The lights will be better shielded than current designs, focusing the beams down. The result should be better views of the Milky Way and constellations, and fewer street lights reaching into bedroom windows as the county’s population continues to grow.

With vast preserves and protected land near the entrance to the Everglades, Collier County has long been able to keep one of the darkest skies in the state, said Diana Umpierre, vice president of the South Florida chapter of the International Dark-Sky Association.

“I love your skies,” Umpierre said. “I live in Broward County, and I spend a lot of time in Collier because we just don’t have the kind of skies you have. The county will see energy savings, and everything associated with all that, but the big thing is quality of life. Nighttime is also important of maintaining the quality of life. Being able to have a roadway without glare, a bedroom window that doesn’t have a street light shining through, a downtown area with warm lighting — it’s all important.”

The county is working with the state to make similar upgrades on state-owned roads. The county is also in the middle of a monthslong process to rewrite its land-use and development codes to set higher lighting standards for developers and new buildings.

It could take a fight to convince Florida Power & Light to start using LED or high-tech bulbs in the security streetlights it sells to homeowners, Nance said.

“FPL, shockingly, is in the energy selling business,” Nance said. “They sell lights that are not necessarily energy-efficient and not necessarily to these standards. The problem with these lights is they shine everywhere on everyone. We need to try to get them on board with this so they’ll put up the right lights for us. I think we can all make money and all make improvements at the same time.”