Lighting the West is a partnership between Wyndham, Moonee Valley, Hobsons Bay and Maribyrnong City Councils to bring sustainable street lighting to the west of Melbourne. Over the past two years, the project changed 80W mercury vapour lights in residential streets to new energy efficient lights, saving 66-77 per cent of the energy used by each light. A total of 26,053 lights were changed across the municipalities. Over the next 20 years, this will save $41 million in energy and maintenance costs and 146,397 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
The massive regional undertaking was one of the largest street lighting projects in Australia and included the largest changeover of decorative lights. It was achieved through collaboration between the WAGA councils, working closely with Jemena and Powercor, the Distribution Network Service Providers for the region, and Ironbark Sustainability, the project manager. The whole project cost $10 million of which the Australian Government contributed $2.36 million.
Community engagement was crucial to the project, not only to inform residents about what was going on in their streets as they watched technicians in cherry-pickers working on the light poles. The councils took the opportunity to tell their communities a broader story about energy efficiency and show people how to save energy themselves. Communications included intriguing billboards raised above busy roads in the west and, for those residents who were intrigued, a range of workshops, adverts, articles and events adapted to each municipality. This proved worthwhile; 600 residents participated in workshops, and the website and other written materials were read by thousands of people.
So Lighting the West is about much more than street lights. It’s proof of the power of local government leadership and collaboration in reducing energy use. It’s a huge step for councils to tackle their energy-guzzling lights, but it’s also just the beginning. Having confidently achieved these changeovers, the WAGA councils are now taking on other energy projects – upgrading their buildings, considering other lighting changeovers and encouraging the community to be efficient and switch to solar.
Expect to see Lighting the West lead directly to further achievements in the next few years.
(Posted by the Western Alliance for Greenhouse Action)
