The municipality, Anchorage, Alaska, along with Cree, Inc, a maker of LED lights, are planning to change 16,000 municipal roadway lights with high-efficiency LED fixtures (about 1/4 of total streetlights). Because Anchorage has 85 days a year with less than 8 hours of daylight, any benefit over the tradition lighting architecture are compounded. The LED fixtures are expected to use 50% less energy than current streetlights, which could save the city $360,000 per year at the current energy prices. The cost of the project is 2.2 million dollars. “The LED fixtures, based on performance-leading Cree XLamp(r) LEDs, typically last up to seven times longer than high-pressure sodium fixtures, allowing Anchorage to better utilize maintenance resources.” And the quality of light should also be better, though people will need to get used to it at first.
– from www.treehugger.com