where cost savings pay for the LED streetlight costs

The study also identified a hurdle facing the adoption of LED streetlights. Most existing deployments were funded by stimulus funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). That funding is receding, making financing for future LED streetlight projects has been more led flood light difficult to secure, despite the success of early projects. However the price for LED streetlights is falling, and is expected to fall enough that within a few years to reach price parity with traditional streetlights. At that point the payback period, where cost savings pay for the LED streetlight costs, will be short enough to be within the reach of budget-constrained cities and municipalities.

The future for this form of street lighting is bright as most existing deployments are pilot projects. "Perhaps the most surprising finding in our survey was that most cities had only converted a small percentage of their streetlights to LEDs, even though they've been extremely popular," added Northeast Group. "It was hard to find any detractors from these projects, yet LED penetration remains below 1% of the overall streetlight population in the US. Certainly, some hurdles, such as financing, remain. But overall these findings show that the market has vast growth potential."

LED streetlights offer a new dimension of usefulness that traditional streetlights do not. LED lights can turn on and off instantly, and readily dimmable. This paves the way for smart streetlights reduce energy consumption through dimming, improve billing, and enable led high bay light remote monitoring features. Cities that have already installed communications networks for related smart grid infrastructure can take advantage of existing installations to lower overall costs.