FILE- Chase Perry, an apprentice lineman with Christenson Electric, replaces a sodium streetlight with an LED light in Bend. 

Last month, the city of Redmond finished switching out the city’s street lights with new LED lights decreasing light pollution and saving the city $46,829 per year in utility costs.

The city contracted Ameresco, an energy efficiency and renewable energy company, to complete the LED light conversion of the city’s 1,137 street lights, a city of Redmond staff report from last February showed. The contract with the company was approved by the city council and was worth around $585,049. It included a $27,900 audit conducted by Ameresco as part of the process, the report said.

Prior to the conversion, the city was paying Pacific Power around $135,929 per year in utility costs. With a saving from the new lights, the LED lights will pay for themselves within 10 and a half years, the report said. The city calculated a new annual utility cost of $89,100.

Jessica MacClanahan, a city engineer, said the project was completed in September and the city is looking forward to the future savings on utility costs. She said the new lights come with other perks as well.

“In addition to the power savings I think the LED lights offer less light pollution,” MacClanahan said. “You can probably imagine that glow effect you have at night with a lot of high watt street lights. The LED lights are pointed downward which helps with the night sky.”

Dr. Bill Kowalik, chairperson of DarkSky Oregon, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving Oregon’s dark skies by diminishing light pollution, said the subject of impacting light pollution by changing out street lights involves several factors.

Those factors include the shielding of the lights, the lumen output and color of the lights, and the glare potential and whether or not dimming is possible at night, Kowalik said. While Kowalik and his organization were not involved in Redmond’s LED lights, he does recall Bend’s switch in 2019.

“During the City of Bend’s conversion from HPS to 3000K (color temperature) LED streetlights in 2019, we tried to get 2700K LED bulbs installed, which have a more appealing, slightly less blue color than the 3000K LEDs,” Kowalik said. “To no avail, because Pacific Power didn’t have the option for 2700K then.

According to the city, Ameresco was selected by over 25 municipalities in Oregon and Washington for street light conversions, including the Oregon Department of Transportation which recently switched out 8,200 street lights. Bend also contracted Ameresco to switch out 2,300 street lights.