http://www.energyefficiencynews.com/articles/i/5191/?cid=3

Light emitting diode (LED) street lighting can yield up to 85% energy savings, according to a trial of the technology in 12 of the world's largest cities.

The two-and-a-half-year independent LightSavers trial of LED street lamps in cities including London, New York, Toronto, Sydney and Kolkata in India also found that residents felt safer with LED lighting and reported better visibility.

In a report outlining the findings of the trial, Lighting the Clean Revolution: The Rise of LED Street Lighting and What it Means for Cities, LED street lights were found to last from 50,000 to 100,000 hours and have a failure rate of just 1% compared to around 10% for conventional lighting technologies.

LEDs are now mature enough for a major scale-up to outdoor applications like street lighting, where the technology could save some 670 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions every year.

The Clean Revolution campaign, which launched the report as part of its efforts in the run up to Rio+20 UN Global Compact Corporate Sustainability Forum together with The Climate Group in partnership with Philips, says governments should now accelerate the rollout of LED street lighting as a priority.

"This report clearly highlights that LEDs are ready to be scaled-up in towns and cities across the globe," says Mark Kenber, CEO of The Climate Group. "All new public lighting - both street lighting and in public buildings - should be LED by 2015, with the aim of all public lighting being LED by 2020."

The Climate Group is now recruiting a leadership group of city, state and national governments to work on driving forward the rollout of LED lighting and report on progress over the next three years.

"A full switch to the latest energy-efficient LED lighting solutions provides significant energy savings, a reduction in CO₂ emissions, and will transform urban environments", adds Harry Verhaar, head of global public and government affairs at Philips Lighting.