Every street light in Fresno is getting an upgrade this year. New LED lights will replace the orange-color bulbs that are in most lamps. The change will provide greater visibility while using less electricity.

The city of Fresno is cutting its 3 million dollar a year power bill for street lights in half by upgrading to LED. This annual savings will pay for the new lights in 6 years.

By the end of this year, the orange, fuzzy glow of streetlights in Fresno will be a thing of the past, replaced by new energy-efficient LED lights.

Fresno mayor Lee Brand says, “Converting these we can save an estimated 1.6 million dollars of energy cost per year.”

The savings will pay for all 36 thousand lights in Fresno in six years, with PG&E loaning the money at 0% interest.

Aaron August, director of business energy solutions at PG&E says, “This is going to have higher energy efficiency and as a result, reduce demand at night. What does that mean? At night there are fewer clean sources of energy at our disposal and this is going to help everyone.”

Fresno public works director Scott Mozier says, “They can see someone walking on the sidewalk, facial recognition. The LED fixtures are a much better quality of light, visual recognition is much better, and the lighting will be at least as good as what we have today.”

The new lights are also expected to last twice as long.

Mozier says, “The older ones last about seven years. LED fixtures are rated over fifteen years.”

So far, 1,000 of Fresno’s 36,000 street lights have been switched, with all set to be complete in December.

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