Streetlights evolving to LEDs

In February 1889, 20 electric-arc lamps brightened Vancouver for the first time. Just a year prior, the city council voted to erect a municipal lighting system. Only nine lights lined Main Street. Later incandescent streetlights replaced the arc lamps. The lights kept spreading and evolving. Now most Clark County streetlights are high-pressure sodium lamps. That’s changing. Streetlight technology continues to evolve. “LEDs are now the leading-edge for street lamps,” said Bill Hibbs, commercial programs manager at Clark Public Utilities. “Their cost is dropping and we’ve had several successful pilots locally that show LED savings and reliability.”