Moving to energy-efficient street lights

LEDs save on electricity bills, maintenance costs and carbon emissions.

Almost half of Council’s electricity is used for street lighting that keeps residential and main roads safe. As part of Council’s carbon neutral plan Council is committed to upgrading streetlighting to LED.

Residential streetlighting was upgraded between 2019-2021, reducing Council's electricity consumption by over 1,400,000 kWh each year and our carbon emissions by 1,500 tonnes per year. The project was negotiated through the Southern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (SSROC) and is worth over $2M. It will pay for itself in around 7 years.

Council is currently working with Ausgrid and SSROC to strike a deal on the next phase of upgrades, main roads streetlighting, which is expected to save another 1,500,000kWh of electricity annually.

Part of the project cost is managing the old lamps, which will be disassembled and recycled where possible. Removal of the mercury lamps will help us meet the Minamata Convention, which is a global treaty to ban most mercury by 2021.