?? , 2009
The Honorable Barack
Obama
President, United
States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Obama:
We would be delighted
if you would issue the attached executive order requiring that for all projects
funded by the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009, any necessary roadway and area lighting be
accomplished with LED luminaires. Thank you for endorsing the provisions in
that Act that allow LED street lights to qualify for Energy Efficiency &
Conservation Block Grants (Pub. L. 110-140, §544(12)), and zero-interest Qualified
Energy Conservation Bond funding.
DOE solid state
lighting demonstrations with PG&E and others indicate:
o Energy savings of 15 to 70% depending on
wattage and application;
o Payback periods of 4.5 to 8 years for new
construction of 100 watt equivalent luminaires at energy rates of 7½ cent kWh
(periods 26% shorter than that for energy rates of 12 cents kWh);
o Well-received, comparable-to-better
lighting when compared to traditional lights;
o Superior color rendition and mesopic light;
and
o Reduction in peak demand coming from
roadway lighting by 15 - 50%.
Installation of LED roadway
lighting will:
o Minimize counterproductive state and local
government tax increases needed to defray nighttime lighting costs of
transportation projects;
o Provide long-term economic benefits by avoiding
wasteful energy use in those projects for the 12 to 30 year time it takes to
amortize the cost of old-style luminaires; and
o Promote use of current, energy efficient
technology on roadway construction projects and help protect the environment in
conformance with the purposes of the Recovery Act (Pub. L. 111-5).
We are well pleased
with your initiatives to reduce energy usage. However, without continued strong
directive in this area, conservation goals will not be met. For example, every
old-technology light installed now will waste money and energy for 10-30 years
in the future. We hope you will act to stop that in conformance with the
purposes expressed in the Recovery Act.
Thank you for your consideration of
this request.
Sincerely,
??
Address: ??
Phone: ??
PS. More information
on LED street lights may be found at http://www.newworldwindpower.com/LED%20MENU.htm
Cosigners from:
EXECUTIVE ORDER – USE
OF ENERGY EFFICIENT ROADWAY & OTHER OUTDOOR LIGHTING
By the authority vested in me as President
by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, in order
to further the purposes stated in U.S. Pub. L.
111-5, § 3(a), the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, namely:
(4) To invest in
transportation, environmental protection, and other infrastructure that will
provide long-term economic benefits; [and]
(5) To stabilize
State and local government budgets, in order to minimize and avoid reductions
in essential services and counterproductive state and local tax increases;
and to comply with my
duty under U.S. Pub. L. 111-5, § 3(b) to manage the funding of projects pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that are consistent with its
policies; the domestic, foreign policy, and national security interests of the United
States; and to cooperate with other countries who are concerned about US
contributions to climate change that may be affecting them, I hereby order
as follows:
Section 1. Energy Efficient Roadway and Traffic-related Lighting.
Where such lighting has not already been
contracted for by the date of this order (or if already contracted for, if the
contract can be modified by change order), when roadway, parking facility, or
other outdoor or traffic related lighting is deemed necessary in any project that
is funded in whole or in part pursuant to U.S. Public Law 111-5 or other appropriation,
grant, tax credit bond, or other financial mechanism authorized under the laws
of the United States, that lighting shall be accomplished only through the use
of light emitting diode technology or any other technology of equal or greater
energy efficiency.
Section. 2. General
Provisions.
(a) This order shall be implemented
consistent with applicable law.
(b) This order is not intended to, and
does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable
at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its
departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any
other person.
BARACK OBAMA
THE WHITE HOUSE,
, 2009.
Discussion of higher than 100 watt LEDs. In the DOE/MNDOT Gateway demonstration on the new 10-lane, I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, 16 (Type V THE EDGE™) Area luminaires were installed in the center of the bridge deck. Two (Type III THE EDGE) Area luminaires were installed on the approaches at each end of the bridge deck on 40 foot poles 150 feet apart.
http://betaled.com/docs/BetaLED-I-35W%20Bridge.pdf
The I-35W bridge configuration clearly provides the uniformity contemplated by the LRC. You can see from the road signs that this is a 10-lane bridge. The 40 foot high poles that the luminaires are mounted on are 150 feet apart. Montana typically uses 180 to 220 foot pole spacing and the 40 to 45 foot pole height on its highways. More LEDs or a different lighting pattern can be added if the poles are spaced 200 feet apart, etc. or if needed because of an increased pole height.
There has been some concern expressed about whether or not LED roadway lights meet standards. Thus, it is important to note that the I-35W project lighting had to meet with approval from the Federal Highway Commission, MN DOT (Minnesota Department of Transportation), and DOE. So some manufacturers’ LEDs meet standards.
Each “THE EDGE” luminaire on the I-35W project has 10 light bars with 20 LEDs per bar. Ten light bars driven at 350 milliamps = 257 system watts driving the LED fixtures with the ballast. That compares with 295 system watts for the 250-watt plus ballast HPS fixture used on the old bridge.
Because of the number of LEDs used in this application, the energy savings are not as great as on demonstrations on residential streets (50%), parking garages (59%) or supermarket parking lots (70%) shown in recent DOE Gateway demonstrations. Even so, MN DOT expects an annual energy savings of approximately 15 percent compared to the 250-Watt HPS fixtures previously installed. The largest savings on this project will come from the fact that these LEDs have been rated to last much longer than the previously installed HPS lighting. That is, they will not have to be replaced as often—something that is dangerous work even with the extra lane on each side of the median in addition to the 5 traffic lanes in each direction.
According to Table 1, the LED fixture shown above is rated to run at 525 milliamperes. If you run it at lower milliamps, you get a longer life and less light. If you run it at 700 milliamps the life is less. MN DOT plans to run these fixtures at 350 milliamps so it will not have to replace the luminaires for many hours. The rated L70 life (time when the light from these luminaires decreases by 30%) is projected to be greater than 150,000 hours at the milliamps MN DOT intends to run the lights. That is 36+ years at 4100 hours/year of on-time.
Table 1: http://betaled.com/docs/BLD-STR-T2-HT_80%20LED.pdf