Burlingame Earns Loan to Upgrade Lights

Burlingame joins three other California cities receiving low-interest loans for improving its lighting systems. The City will receive $458,633 for replacing 767 streetlights with LED models, expected to reduce Burlingame’s electric costs by about $57,500 per year.

“These lighting projects provide simple, effective ways to cut energy waste and save taxpayer dollars,” said Energy Commission Chair Dr. Robert Weisenmiller in a statement. “New lights improve public safety and reduce maintenance costs, and the projects more than pay for themselves by immediately lowering electricity bills.”

The new lights additionally will cut CO2 emissions by 124 tons annually.

Burlingame officials plan on paying back the loan using energy savings in about eight years.

This new loan comes after a $150,010 federal grant received earlier in the year used to replace additionally streetlights with LED models. Officials also upgraded fire station, police department, library, city garage and corporate yard lighting for annual savings of $29,000.

The other cities receiving loans for a total of nearly $2 million are Ceres, Kerman and Salinas. Funding comes from the Energy Conservation Assistance Act and federal stimulus money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.