Housing
The Secret Energy Drain on Cities: Streetlights
San Diego County has made it easy for its cities to convert to energy-efficient streetlights.
Streetlights, often tens of thousands of them spread throughout the entire footprint of a city, represent an impressively large drain on city budgets. They are often cities' biggest or second biggest energy demand, and can amount to somewhere between one-quarter and one-half of a city's entire energy bill, sometimes even more.
But just like the power-saving curly-cue CFL light bulbs we've been implored to install in our homes and offices, there's been major improvements in the technology and efficiency of streetlights. Switching out light bulbs – at home and on city streets – is a relatively simple way to cut down energy use and spend less money.