Is your utility or municipality investigating LED street and area lighting
products or conducting a demonstration project or full scale retrofit?
Popular before ARRA funding opportunities, many more municipalities are now
pursuing the installation of LED street lights with their Energy Efficiency
and Conservation Block Grant funds.
Because these applications of LED lighting are relatively new and many of
these projects are taking place simultaneously, the Department of Energy
(DOE) formed the Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium [1] earlier
this year to accelerate the learning curve and help cities and utilities take
advantage of successful strategies/avoid duplication of lessons learned by
others. The Municipal Consortium will collect, analyze, and share technical
information and the experiences of its members, so that a larger body of
knowledge related to this topic is accessible to others pursuing these
initiatives.
Membership in the Consortium is open to municipalities, utilities, and energy
efficiency organizations, with participation at various levels from other
interested parties.
* *Primary members *include municipalities, power providers, building
owners, and other decisionmakers who invest in street and area lighting.
* *Advisory members* are solicited from organizations with a known history
for promoting quality lighting and energy efficiency (e.g. educational
institutions, environmental monitoring agencies, etc.) and will be
selected to fill specific Consortium needs.
* *Guests* include individual employees of organizations that meet the
requirements for membership but whose organizations have chosen not to
join.
To date, the Consortium has received over 400 applications for membership
with 229 coming from utilities/municipalities. Information on joining is
available here [2].
The Consortium will disseminate best practices and lessons learned through
national and regional meetings, webcasts, web-based discussion forums, and
other means. The first webcast, on May 6, 2010 [3], presented information on
the Consortium's purpose, first steps, and opportunities to participate. A
second webcast, on July 20, 2010 [4], provided an update on Consortium
activities and perspectives from members who are in the midst of implementing
LED street lighting evaluations.
The group is now planning for the first of what it expects will be an annual
Municipal Solid-State Conference. It will be held on September 29, 2010 from
2:00pm to 5:00pm, after the Street and Area Lighting Conference at the Hyatt
Regency Huntington Beach Hotel. This event is open to all, except
manufacturers, vendors, distributors, and their representatives at this time.
Seating is limited with priority reservations going to municipalities and
utilities. Those interested in attending should contact Vicki Marsten at
Seattle City Light as soon as possible (email: MSSLC@Seattle.Gov [5]; phone:
(206) 386-1783).
More information about Solid State Lighting in general can be found on DOE's
SSL resource pages [6].
[1] http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/ssl/consortium.html
[2] http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/publications/pdfs/ssl/consortium-app-form.pdf
[3] http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/ssl/consortium_webinar.html
[4] http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/ssl/consortium-update_webinar.html
[5] mailto:MSSLC@Seattle.Gov
[6] http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/ssl/about.html
