The Garden Isle, is constantly working towards a greener future for our community and a new initiative to replace all street lights with LEDs is one more step in the right direction. This makes Kauai the first island state to make this a reality.
Currently, the county has the majority of the lights with 2,900 on island. This would equate to a savings of $500,000 annually. The state has 582 lights. The LED lights will consume a 1/3 of the energy of the existing lights.
In 2013, David Bissell, president and CEO of KIUC and Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr signed an agreement committing KIUC and the local government to work together to reduce the cost of fossil fuels and lower the energy cost for it’s residents which is 4 times the cost of the mainland.
The project will begin in 2016 and will take a year to complete. Electronic controls will help to adjust based on time of day and seasonality adding to the efficiency of this retrofit. Here’s to a brighter and more efficient future for our Island!