Pilot locations for the City of Knoxville’s new LED streetlights are up and running.

The pilot locations have been serving as testbeds to be evaluated by the City, public stakeholders, and for residents to also get the chance to experience the new LEDs in action.

Since late last year, Knoxville has been gradually flipping the switch to energy-efficient lighting in several neighborhoods through these design and testing phases.

An interactive map on the City of Knoxville Office of Sustainability’s website shows select testbed areas where some of those high pressure sodium (HPS) bulbs have been converted to LEDs so far, from Western Avenue to parts of Chilhowee Drive.

According to the map, 16 locations in Knoxville have been tested out.

You may remember Knoxville chose Siemens to retrofit its nearly 30,000 streetlights in September 2017. The retrofit will cut the City’s streetlight operation budget in half by $2 million annually in energy and maintenance costs. With these savings, the investment is expected to pay for itself in less than ten years.

Other benefits include:

• 50% more energy efficient than existing Knoxville streetlights
• Greenhouse gas emissions savings, helping the City achieve its goal of reducing municipal greenhouse gas emissions 20% by 2020;
• Greater reliability, and fewer outages, sustained by a 10 year luminaire warranty;
• Improved light quality, including a reduction in light pollution and improved safety;
• No disposal hazards.

Once the design and testing phase is complete, Siemens expects to begin installation of the new lights across the city later this year. All work is expected to wrap up by Summer 2019.

For more detailed information about this project, click here.