Indy's traffic lights will soon be greener 8.11.10

City is using $1M to switch to brighter, more energy-efficient signals

Francesca Jarosz
The Indianapolis Star

Drivers passing through intersections across the city soon will start to notice the traffic lights are brighter.

But they won't be able to detect that they're also greener.
The city is replacing incandescent bulbs with more energy-efficient lights, which also throw off more light, at all of its roughly 9,200 traffic signals. Indianapolis will use $1 million from federal stimulus money doled out for conservation efforts to finish a switch of the signals' bulbs that started two years ago with a $500,000 state grant.

It's part of an effort to reduce city energy costs that also includes making buildings owned and operated by the city, such as the City-County Building, more efficient.

The traffic-signal project is expected to be completed this fall. City leaders say the bulbs use about a tenth of the energy of an incandescent bulb, a reduction that's expected to save $250,000 each year. The city paid about $600,000 last year to power the traffic signals.

"It helps with costs savings and also helps improve our local environment," said Kären Haley, the city's director of sustainability. "We're using less energy than with a standard bulb."

The project is similar to what homeowners do when they swap their common light bulbs for the more efficient compound fluorescent bulbs. But this technology, which uses light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, is different.

Indianapolis, like other U.S. cities, has gotten an infusion of money for green efforts in recent years. A $10 million federal grant will help make the Near Eastside more energy efficient. An additional $400,000 will be used for projects such as environmentally friendly storm-water systems, which reduce the amount of water that flows into the city's combined sewer system.

The money to replace traffic signals is part of an $8 million chunk of federal energy stimulus money. Those dollars also will be used to add bike lanes, establish a loan program for green businesses and install roofs that use vegetation to reduce energy costs at city parks facilities.
http://www.indystar.com/article/20100810/LOCAL18/8100341/Indy-s-traffic-lights-will-soon-be-greener