March 19, 2007—The City of Raleigh, North Carolina, plans to become the nation’s first “LED City” through a city-wide deployment of lights that use light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The initiative is designed to create a “living laboratory” to deliver the economic, environmental, and usage benefits of LED lighting to the 350,000 residents of Raleigh, and to serve as a model for other cities that are considering implementing energy-efficient infrastructures.
Raleigh’s first project was to install LED lighting in one floor of its municipal building’s parking garage in December 2006, which has already resulted in a 40 percent energy savings and a great improvement in lighting on that floor, according to Cree, Inc.
The project used LEDs from Cree that were incorporated into fixtures by the Lighting Science Group Corporation (LSGC) and installed by Amtech Lighting Services.
Over the next 18 months, Raleigh plans to deploy LED lighting to serve a number of lighting applications, including garage and parking lot lights, street lights, architectural and accent lighting, portable lighting, and pedestrian and walkway lighting.
