News

2 February 2010

 

Cree celebrates 3rd anniversary of Raleigh becoming first LED City

LED chip, lamp and lighting fixture maker Cree Inc of Durham, NC, USA says that, three years ago, Raleigh became the first city in the world to join its LED City program, a now-international initiative to deploy and promote LED lighting.

LED City is an international community of government and industry parties initiated in December 2006 to evaluate, deploy and promote LED lighting for municipal infrastructure. Program members also include Chapel Hill, NC; Ann Arbor, MI; Austin and Fairview, TX; Anchorage, AK; Indian Wells, CA; Danville, VI; and Boston, MA in the USA; Toronto and Welland in Canada; Tianjin and Huizhou in China; Gwangju in South Korea; and Torraca and Apecchio in Italy.

Raleigh now has more than 40 installations, ranging from accent and indoor lighting to street and parking lot lighting. “The city of Raleigh now favors LED lighting for all renovations and new projects,” explains Raleigh assistant manager Daniel Howe. “Working with Cree and becoming the world's first LED City has given Raleigh the opportunity to jump ahead in deploying energy-efficient, solid-state lighting technology,” he adds.

Cree says that LED lighting can help cities save money through reduced energy consumption and reduced maintenance costs, as LED lights last longer and require less replacement than traditional lighting sources. Raleigh officials conservatively estimate that the current use of LED lighting can save the city more than $200,000 annually.

“As Raleigh enjoys some of the lowest energy rates in the country, if the business case works here, it most likely works anywhere,” comments Raleigh mayor Charles Meeker.

“The city of Raleigh has made a tremendous commitment to LED lighting during the past three years, and has become a global leader in the deployment and promotion of this technology,” says Cree’s chairman & CEO Chuck Swoboda. “Other municipalities around the world often look to Raleigh to guide their own evaluation and installation of energy-efficient LED lighting,” he adds.

See related item:

Cree and Raleigh launch ‘LED City’ municipal lighting initiative

Search: Cree LED City LEDs

Visit: www.ledcity.org

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