Transitioning to high-quality streetlights will offer better efficiency, reliability and cost savings

The City of Boulder has completed the acquisition of over 4,400 streetlights from Xcel Energy. The purchase is a significant step toward improving financial resilience, environmental stewardship and safe travel. Transitioning to high-quality streetlights will offer better efficiency, reliability and cost savings while reducing pollution from light and electricity generation.

Beginning in 2025, the city will start converting existing fixtures and lights to LEDs, reducing operation and maintenance costs by up to $1 million per year while decreasing the city's carbon emissions by about 1,000 metric tons annually — equivalent to removing 254 gasoline vehicles from the road. The conversion will provide new, customized features once unavailable to Boulder, including:

  • Smart technology with automated real-time outage reporting to improve response times and support preventative maintenance.
  • Adjustable lighting for low-traffic periods to improve visibility and safety, allow for further light pollution reductions, and increase energy savings.
  • New dark-sky-friendly light fixtures that will focus light where it is needed and reduce spillover affecting night-sky viewing and wildlife, such as migratory birds.

“This investment highlights the city’s commitment to responsibly managing vital infrastructure while ensuring the thoughtful stewardship of community funds,” said City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde. “We aim to lead by example in adopting innovative, quality technologies that support the natural environment, fund sustainability and prioritize the wellbeing of community members who travel and reside in Boulder.”

The purchase is funded by the Community, Culture, Resilience and Safety Tax. Anticipated operational and maintenance savings will support streetlight upkeep and potentially be reinvested in future transportation projects. The Transportation & Mobility Department has also repurposed $755,400 in the 2025 budget to manage and maintain the newly acquired streetlights.

“We appreciate Xcel’s partnership throughout this process,” Sustainability Senior Manager Carolyn Elam added. “Together, we explored a number of options to improve the streetlight experience for our community and ultimately concluded this was the best path forward.”

Converting existing streetlights in the public right-of-way will be a multi-year process anticipated to begin in 2025. Late last year, the community weighed in on the selection of the new LED color temperatures — how warm or cool a light appears. Overwhelmingly, participants indicated their preference for warmer lighting at 2700 Kelvin, a conclusion additionally supported by best practices and technical analyses. The city will replace lights in residential areas with this warmer color temperature moving forward.

The purchase helps forward the city’s climate targets and transportation goals, and is supported by community values in the Sustainability, Equity and Resilience Framework. Learn more on the Streetlight Acquisition webpage.

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