Canada adds another city to LED City list

Welland, Ontario, is the latest municipal government to commit to the LED City initiative, under which cities from around the globe are converting lighting to light-emitting diodes.

A retrofit of all streetlights is under way -- 50 have gone up so far and 50 more are in the works. Welland, a city of about 50,000 people located near the Niagara area of Ontario, will also work on converting its traffic signals and is adopting language to ensure that LED lighting is the standard for future installations.

The project will probably save about $253,980 per year in reduced energy and maintenance costs. The other kind of cool thing about this particular commitment is that Welland is able to use LED light engines produced by CRS Electronics, which just so happens to be based in the city.