Switching streetlights to efficient LEDs takes more than changing a light bulb

LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, use less than half the electricity of old-fashioned streetlights, and they require less maintenance, too. Less juice to the pole means less pollution going from the power plant into the atmosphere. The cost savings are expected to pay for the more-expensive LEDs long before they fail. So why haven’t cities all over the metro area converted? Turns out it’s a complicated matter, and despite federal stimulus funding and a pilot project coordinated by the Mid-America Regional Council, only one metro city has fully converted to LEDs, along with a relative handful of light poles in other cities.