More LED streetlights will be coming soon for Boulder as the city finalizes a deal to from Xcel Energy.
Boulder has more than 5,000 streetlights, of which the city currently owns 600. By early next year, the city plans to buy the remaining 4,500 or so from Xcel using revenue from the Community, Culture, Resilience and Safety Tax. And once that deal is done, Boulder plans to transition completely to LED streetlights over the next two years or so.
The city is about to launch two pilots to test out different color temperatures of light. One set of LED lights will be installed on 28th Street just south of Iris Avenue and the Diagonal Highway to showcase what lighting for major roadways could look like. Another set will be added at the Spruce Pool, 2102 Spruce St., that will resemble residential neighborhood lighting. Both pilots will feature a variety of color temperatures of light, and the city will use shielding to reduce light pollution.
Boulder sustainability senior manager Carolyn Elam said the city will be seeking feedback from community members on which types of lighting they like best. The temperature of light can be either warmer — which is often orange or yellow in color — or cooler, which tends to look more white or blue. A page for the pilots will go live next week, and although the city hasn’t confirmed a start date for the pilots yet, Elam said it is “imminent.”
LED lights aren’t entirely new to Boulder — the city is already using them in areas such as University Hill and Boulder Junction — but owning all of the city’s streetlights and converting them to LEDs will create a more customizable and responsive system of nighttime lighting. It will give the city more control over its lights, including their brightness and temperature, and the ability to implement smart technology to alert the city when lights go out so they can be fixed quickly. The lights the city is leaning toward choosing will also have the ability to dim at night to reduce the light intensity as needed.
Most of Boulder’s streetlights still use older technology, whether it be high-pressure sodium or other types of lighting. LED technology is highly energy-efficient, and LED bulbs also have a longer lifetime than older technologies, so they don’t need to be changed out as often. The change will help the city cut energy spending and reduce its emissions footprint — Elam estimated the city will save 2.3 million kilowatt-hours of power and reduce emissions by 1,000 metric tons per year by converting its streetlights to LEDs.
But in addition to these savings and environmental benefits, converting the streetlights to LED will make Boulder’s streetlight system safer and more reliable, according to Elam. She said with typical streetlights, there can be safety issues when travelers pass from lit to unlit areas, which can cause their eyes to have trouble adapting.
“That harsh shift from light to dark is actually a big concern because you can’t necessarily see into the shadowy areas. You don’t know that something’s there. It takes a little while to refocus,” Elam said. “Thatap one of the benefits of actually being able to adjust the lights to match (the) ambient light … you can actually be safer, and thatap one of the things we get with with this type of LED lights.”
City Council last July. Years ago, Boulder had pushed to buy Xcel’s local energy infrastructure and create a , and when the city ultimately struck a franchise deal with Xcel, the agreement included a provision that Boulder would still be allowed to buy its streetlights.
A few other cities in Colorado, such as Golden and Greenwood Village, have already made the switch to LED. Elam said Erie and Aurora are discussing the possibility of doing so. Denver currently has some LED lights, but they are operated through Xcel.
Emily Sandoval, a project manager for Boulder who has led engagement on the streetlight project, said the city has been working on the project for some time and is looking forward to launching it.
“When we think of streetlights, itap one of those pieces of city infrastructure that touches everyone. Whether you live here or work here, or you own a business here, (or) you go to school here, you may not think about it, but you’re interacting with your streetlights. And we’re excited to have the community have a chance, for the first time ever, to talk about what those lights are going to look like for the future,” Sandoval said.
“We’re modernizing the system in a way that I think is exciting. We’re embracing the future because we are embracing new technology thatap been proven out in other places (and) can offer better safety, reduce emissions, save costs. And at the same time, itap just a smarter system.”
