Street lighting solutions and and street lamps using advanced solar technology.

Solar street lights will save money for us, but could not be applied to all conditions. The City Council’s Public Works Committee last week approved a plan to save about $70,000 of the $450,000 per year it spends with OG&E on street lights by turning off lights along some streets. And they are planning to install some solar street lights to support this plan.

As for this plan, some people express their different ideas about it. Solar-powered street lights might not be an option for saving money on Muskogee’s street lighting expense, said Mike Stewart, public works director. Stewart said the idea of switching from electric street lights to solar-powered ones is something he has not considered and hasn’t done any research to see whether it would be feasible.

Several cities are using solar street lights, including Dania Beach, Fla., a city of less than 30,000 in the suburbs of Fort Lauderdale.

Colin Donnelly, Dania Beach assistant city manager, said necessity — and a Department of Energy grant — motivated Dania Beach to install its solar powered lights.

The region had been pounded by hurricanes a few years ago and the electric companies were working on improving their electric distribution systems, Donnelly said. The power company said they would not be doing any municipal installations for a while.

 “We had a newly annexed area, so rather than wait three years for street lights, we thought about the solar alternative,” Donnelly said.

It was a cost savings because it was a new installation, he said. There were no existing lights to retrofit. Replacing electric lights likely would be inefficient.

The batteries used for backup have a five year warranty. The light bulbs used are low-energy fluorescent bulbs that are readily available at Home Depot, he said.

The lighting from solar powered street lights may be somewhat less than that put out by high pressure sodium bulbs. Various Web sites state that solar street lights produce about 2,500 lumen. HPS bulbs generally produce 100-150 lumens per watt. With 150-watt bulbs used in many street lights, an electric street light would produce more than 30,000 lumen.

Each unit costs about $5,000. A U.S. Department of Energy grant paid about one-half of the cost.

“It’s worked out great,” Donnelly said. “They (the lights) have been in for three years. We have about 250 of them now. They’re working fine.”

The lights are powered by a rather large solar panel at the top of each pole. The life expectancy on the panels is 15 years. The panels are designed to withstand hurricane winds of up to 120 mph, he said.

Stewart said it may not be a city option to switch to solar lights, that OG&E owns the lights and most of the poles now used. It would largely to be up to the utility company as to whether they wanted to switch to solar.

“We just pay the bill on the street lights,” he said. “If we were to request solar lights that would be something OG&E would have to decide.”

For the city to take over installation and maintenance of street lights would require purchasing equipment to set poles and hiring the personnel for maintenance, Stewart said.

 “I’m not saying no, it can’t happen, I’m just saying it would need to be researched,” he said.

Meanwhile, the city is considering replacing the bulbs in the light poles it does own — the decorative lights in the downtown area, Stewart said.

Accompany with LED bulbs, solar street lights will save great amount of energy for the cities, which means great expense cutting.