Ruud Lighting has announced that its LEDway streetlights (sold under the BetaLED brand – see press release) have been approved by the City of Los Angeles to replace modern cobrahead fixtures in local and residential neighborhoods as part of the green streetlight program.Back in February, Los Angeles launched a green streetlight program, developed in collaboration with the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) – see News. “The City of Los Angeles is leading by example and making a significant impact to fight the effects of climate change,” said Ed Ebrahimian, General Manager of the Bureau of Street Lighting. “After an expansive test of LED luminaries from various manufacturers, BetaLED products met or exceeded the expected performance, cost savings, and sustainability goals of this project.”

On its website, the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Lighting says that it has started replacing existing streetlight fixtures with LED units.

“This program will save energy by 40%, approximately 40,500 tons of carbon emissions per year, reducing maintenance of the City’s street lighting system,” says the website.It also says that replacement of the LED heads will take about 30 minutes per pole, and the cost of the replacements will be paid through the savings in energy and maintenance.

A spokesperson for BetaLED said that the company has shipped 4,000 fixtures to the City so far, over the last couple of months, and about 1,000 of them have already been installed (see photo).

“The LEDway streetlight from BetaLED was one of two systems selected for the project,” said the spokesperson. “We don’t know at this point how much of the contract we have won.” The full program is hoping to replace a total of 140,000 streetlights.