The Bay Area Climate Collaborative (BACC) and Eaton’s Cooper Lighting division today announced a collaboration to accelerate the energy-efficient streetlighting market through the Bay Area Next Generation Streetlight Initiative. The region-wide project is designed to facilitate the upgrade of 200,000+ municipal streetlights to advanced light-emitting diode (LED) technology.

"LED streetlighting benefits local governments in so many ways – lowering energy and maintenance costs, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving community safety – but without education, many municipalities don’t know where to begin."

As a part of this initiative, BACC is delivering leading-edge education and tools to local governments interested in advanced lighting, in partnership with the nationally-recognized UC Davis California Lighting Technology Center. With support from Eaton’s Cooper Lighting division, the initiative will conduct further outreach around the LED lighting opportunity and develop key resources to complement existing guidance such as Next Generation Streetlights: LED Technology and Strategies for Action, a guide for local governments which delivers education and specific steps for municipal streetlight upgrades. Through the initiative, the BACC ultimately will pool regional interest in LED streetlight upgrades to secure improved purchase and financing terms – creating a streetlight upgrade business model that local governments can implement to relieve municipal budgets while bolstering the region’s economy. Over the course of five years, regional upgrades could deliver up to $50 million in reduced costs for local governments, provide over 100,000 metrics tons of carbon dioxide avoidance and create many new clean-energy jobs.

Headquartered in Peachtree City, Georgia, Eaton’s Cooper Lighting division delivers a range of innovative and reliable indoor and outdoor lighting solutions, as well as controls products, specifically designed to maximize performance, energy efficiency and cost savings. The Lighting business serves customers in the commercial, industrial, retail, institutional, residential, utility and other markets. The BACC is a public-private partnership initiative of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, launched by regional civic and business leaders in 2009 to accelerate the Bay Area clean energy economy through high-impact, market-oriented projects that can be replicated and brought to scale.

"LED streetlighting benefits local governments in so many ways – lowering energy and maintenance costs, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving community safety – but without education, many municipalities don’t know where to begin,” said Mark Eubanks, president, Eaton’s Cooper Lighting division. “As one of the largest LED fixture manufacturers in North America, we are proud to be contributing our expertise to help the BACC and the Next Generation Streetlight Initiative."

"While energy costs continue to rise and local governments grapple with ongoing budgetary constraints, return-on-investment for LED streetlighting is continually improving," said Rafael Reyes, Executive Director of the Bay Area Climate Collaborative. "We are thrilled to be collaborating with Eaton’s Cooper Lighting division to help local governments understand next-generation lighting technologies and save millions from streetlight upgrades."

About Bay Area Climate Collaborative: 

The Bay Area Climate Collaborative (BACC) is a public-private initiative accelerating the clean energy economy. Major partners include Bank of America, Pacific Gas & Electric, Environmental Defense Fund and local governments representing over 70 percent of the Bay Area population. The BACC is driving electric vehicle, energy efficiency, residential upgrades and distributed renewables innovation. For more information on the BACC, please visit http://www.baclimate.org

About Eaton:

Eaton’s Electrical Sector is a global leader with expertise in power distribution and circuit protection; backup power protection; control and automation; lighting and security; structural solutions and wiring devices; solutions for harsh and hazardous environments; and engineering services. Eaton is positioned through its global solutions to answer today’s most critical electrical power management challenges.

Eaton is a power management company providing energy-efficient solutions that help our customers effectively manage electrical, hydraulic and mechanical power. A global technology leader, Eaton acquired Cooper Industries plc in November 2012. The 2012 revenue of the combined companies was $21.8 billion on a pro forma basis. Eaton has approximately 102,000 employees and sells products to customers in more than 175 countries. For more information, visit www.eaton.com.