Regional city to switch to LEDs

Warrnambool City Council is set to become the first in Australia to use highly efficient LED technology for a bulk changeover of residential street lighting, using finance from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. The Victorian council is set to reduce its street lighting costs by almost 70 per cent through replacing about 2,000 mercury vapour lamps with LEDs, following the recent approval of the technology by local network provider Powercor. CEFC CEO Oliver Yates said there was strong potential for the $1.2 million Warrnambool upgrade, using about $600,000 in CEFC finance, to light the way for other councils seeking to substantially reduce their street lighting costs - the single largest source of energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions for the local government sector.