Brooklyn Bridge's Lights to Go 'Green'

December 5, 2007 - 10:31pm

By SARA KUGLER
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - The famous necklace lights on the Brooklyn Bridge will go "green" next year as part of several environmental upgrades around the city, officials said Wednesday.

Changing 160 lights on the landmark bridge, which turns 125 years old next year, is expected to cost $500,000. Other city bridges, which first got their lights in the early 1970s, could also get the modern makeover, officials said.

The switch from 100-watt mercury vapor lamps to 24-watt bulbs known as light-emitting diodes will not make the lights noticeably dimmer, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

Other changes aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions include replacing 25,000 street lights and phasing in new hybrid police and fire vehicles that use gas-electric transmission systems, Bloomberg said. The city also will test three hybrid garbage trucks.

This year, the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree also has energy-saving bulbs, and an array of solar panels atop 45 Rockefeller Plaza helps power them.

Last spring, Bloomberg's administration released a report that found the city's carbon count was 58.3 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2005. That accounts for nearly 1 percent of all emissions nationwide; the U.S. total was 7.26 billion metric tons that year.

The mayor wants to achieve a 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gases citywide by 2030, but the projects outlined Wednesday are part of a short-term plan to see immediate, and more modest, reductions on the way to that larger goal.

The short-term projects are estimated to achieve a greenhouse gas reduction of 34,000 tons a year.

Light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, typically last three times longer than the mercury lights, said Jonathan Wish, chief strategic officer at LED Dynamics, which is not affiliated with the city's project. Most mercury vapor lights endure for 24,000 hours, or about 1,000 days, before burning out, he said.

"Because of the longevity, they're not going to have to change these lights for years, and that will save maintenance costs on top of electricity," he said.

In New York, transportation doesn't account for as much of the total emissions count as pollutants from buildings. In the dense urban environment, building operations and the electricity, natural gas, fuel oil, and steam that they consume make up 79 percent of the total, the city report found.

The city's short-term plans for improving building operations include replacing interior lighting in some schools, police precincts, sanitation garages, firehouses and other municipal office buildings.