Assessing the Economic and Environmental Impacts Associated with Currently Available Street Lighting Technologies

Rising global energy demand and natural disasters continuously threaten energy supplies and prices. As a result, the U.S. government has mandated all government agencies to reduce energy consumption in order to minimize dependence on foreign energy supply and reduce costs. Concern over carbon emissions and environmental impacts has also been expressed in these mandates. One solution may be to invest in newer lighting technologies, such as light-emitting diode (LED) and electrodeless induction, in order to reduce the energy consumption,environmental impact, and costs required for both exterior roadway and parking lot lighting applications. This research compared these lighting technologies with high-pressure sodium (HPS) lighting technology at 56 Air Force installations to assess the economic and environmental consequences associated with each technology over the product life-cycle. This study utilized Building Life-Cycle Cost 5 and Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment software packages to perform the analysis. Both the LED and electrodeless induction technologies showed moderate economic savings and less environmental impact when compared to HPS technology. The overall economic life-cycle costs for LED and induction lighting were 21% and 23% less, respectively, than HPS lighting. Environmental life-cycle assessment showed reductions of 55% and 45% for LED and induction technologies, respectively, compared to HPS lighting.