Dan Leckie Forum 2008
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Hitting the Switch on Low-Carbon Lighting
On October 7, 2008, the Toronto Atmospheric Fund hosted the third annual Dan Leckie Forum (PDF).
This year's event focused on advancing light emitting diode (LED) and adaptive lighting technologies in outdoor applications, and was titled "Hitting the Switch on Low-Carbon Lighting."
The day was co-sponsored by Natural Resources Canada, The Ontario Power Authority Technology Fund, the HSBC Climate Partnership, and The Climate Group. Special thanks also to the family of Dan Leckie, who make this annual event possible.
More than 150 people attended the one-day event. These included representatives of municipal, provincial and federal governments, the lighting industry, municipal, academic and hospital lighting purchasers from across the GTA, and leaders in the LED lighting sector from Canada, UK, USA, China and India. See below for a list of panel speakers. You can download their presentations in PDF format.
As part of this year's Forum, TAF announced membership in the LightSavers Consortium, a GTA-wide group of outdoor lighting purchasers and lighting manufacturers who are joining together to pilot test new lighting technologies in 10 sites.
Dan Leckie Forum 2008 Speakers
Phil Jessup - Executive Director, Toronto Atmospheric Fund
Goal of the LightSavers Project (PDF)
Mr. Jessup provided comments on why TAF developed the LightSavers program, how consortium membership was developed, and the program objectives.
Shirley Coyle - RUUD Lighting
Lighting Quality 101 (PDF)
Ms. Coyle provided insights into the benefits of LED lighting.
Panel # 1
Canada and Ontario Case Studies - Councillor Shelley Carroll, Moderator
Richard Cook - General Manager, Toronto Hydro Street Light Services
Performance of adaptive street light control pilots (PDF)
Mr. Cook outlined his plan to assess technologies that are available to take us through the next 20 years that are the most efficient at meeting standards and provide good quality light. He describes a local testing program, ALAMP, which looks at the opportunities and applications for new lighting.
Dianne Young - Exhibition Place, Toronto
Performance of parking garage adaptive control retrofit and LED street light pilot (PDF)
Ms. Young provided information about Exhibition Place's energy efficiency goals and existing and planned lighting retrofits.
David Alexander - Councillor, City of Welland, Ontario
Fitch Street LED streetlight pilot (PDF)
Mr. Alexander described Welland's street lighting retrofit.
Gordon Troughton - City of Halton Hills
LED downtown pedestrian pathway pilot (PDF)
Mr. Troughton described an LED pilot on a pathway.
Roy Hughes - Senior Engineer, BC Hydro
LED and adaptive lighting retrofit pilots (PDF)
Mr. Hughes provided a summary of BC Hydro's experiences with LED, induction and adaptive lighting technologies.
Panel # 1 Discussion questions
- What about induction lighting?
Induction has a longer life - about 100,000 hours, they are a little more efficient than LEDs at present, sometimes does not spread light as far as is needed, cannot be dimmed however, and costs are between metal halide and LED. - What about the difference between European and North American lighting standards given that NA standards require far more light than European levels?
There is starting to be some recognition that North American standards allow too much uplight and are higher than need be. - What is an acceptable business case?
There isn't one consistent acceptable payback. The longest ones that municipalities accept seems to be about 8 years, but many use the strategy of bundling short term savings with longer term saving so that easy reductions help fund longer term energy savings. LightSavers will be providing guidelines on factors that should be built into the business case and will need to factor in capital, operating and maintenance costs. LEDs seem to have a payback of about 8 years but if you add in maintenance savings that payback can be reduced to about 3 - 4 years. - What about the waste issue of lighting products, especially related to lead and mercury in lighting products?
Considering the longer life span of LEDs this will likely reduce the waste problem but there are some heavy metals that are allowed into North American products that are not allowed in European products. People can ask for manufacturer to meet those European standards, it does not cost more but many people do not know to ask for it. - How is adaptive lighting controlled?
Could be via a timer, trough the internet where the user can control it themselves, or through motion detectors.
Brian Owen - greenTbiz
Turning on the 'Pilot Light' LightSavers Pilot Test Overview
& Update (PDF)
Rapid profiles of up to 10 new LED and adaptive control pilots being undertaken in TAF's LightSavers Program.
Panel # 2
International Case Studies - Nicky Gavron, Member, London Assembly, Moderator
Dr. Liu Dahai - Xenergy Inc., Tianjin, China
3,000 LED streetlight pilot in Tianjin
- Lighting accounts for 12% of electricity use in China.
- Replacing conventional lighting with more efficient lighting would reduce demand equivalent to the Three Gorges dam.
- There is a 3,000 LED street light pilot in Tianjin and it is done in partnership with the national government.
Graham Jennings - London Climate Change Agency, London, UK
Pedestrian pathway LED pilots (PDF)
Mr. Jennings described a London lighting LED lighting retrofit project and emphasized the need for public consultation.
Jing Hongbin - Beijing Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Centre, China
Green Light program and deployment of solar LED streetlights in Beijing's rural areas (PDF)
Mr. Hongbin provided information on a lighting program financed 30% by Chinese government subsidies and 70% by users.
David Konkle - Ann Arbor, USA
Downtown 1,000 LED streetlight retrofit (PDF)
Mr. Konkle described Ann Arbor's 1,000 LED street lighting retrofit.
Panel # 2 Discussion questions
- How does Ann Arbor's lighting bank work?
There is a freeze on downtown lighting, if people want more lighting they have to pay more for it. We require them to put in energy efficient lighting and the funds from this bank will be used to retrofit existing lights to LED. - How do LEDs affect power quality?
LEDs generally have a positive impact on power quality in comparison to CFLs but there needs to be more work done on that.
Parallel discussion/Planning sessions summary
Group A: Overcoming Barriers to Low Carbon Lighting
- There is a need for more education on low carbon lighting - lack of understanding of standards and need for more coordination and partnering.
- This lack of experience is a barrier and there is a need to find a reliable source for information that is impartial.
- More coordination at the local, national and international level is needed to make sure we do not recreate the wheel.
Group B: LightSavers Performance Guidelines Review
- Discussion of RP8 and mesotopic, scotopic and photopic readings.
- The Guidelines document is needed because it is objective and provides the information in one place. The document needs to be through and comprehensive as people using it will be coming from different knowledge bases.
- Plan to have draft of Guideline document ready by mid November 2008.
- Going to need to have variability of measuring the pilots. There will not be one strategy that will be used in all locations, need flexibility.
Group C: LightSavers Pilot Procurement Discussion
- Pilot locations need to determine what their procurement process will be. In most cases it can be quite simple but there will need to be a process.
- Information sharing is considered one of the main benefits of LightSavers, including sharing of funding opportunities for pilots.
- Manufacturers were interested in long term plans that the municipalities may have for the technology.
Group D: The Climate Group International Cities and Regions
- There is general interest in pursuing an international project on LED lighting and on electric vehicles especially plug-ins.
- Acknowledgement and discussion of the need to re-assess and upgrade old lighting standards that now pose barriers to adoption of LED lighting.
- There is the potential for China and other developing countries to leapfrog technologies.
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