The residents of Pepperell, Mass., followed their town leaders in choosing advanced LED technology to illuminate their streets and preserve dark skies.
Dark-sky LED light pollution
Written by Shel Evergreen. Published by LEDs Magazine March 16, 2023.
When LEDs started to gain popularity in the 2010s, some cities jumped in right away, putting the energy-efficient technology to work on lighting streets. By 2013, for example, Los Angeles had converted 140,000 streetlights to LEDs, transforming the iconic orange glow of the city to a place crisp and color-saturated under its bright white lights.
Others moved more slowly. Over the last decade, Boston has been replacing old streetlights with LEDs as part of its carbon emissions–cutting strategy. Still, in 2019, Public Works Streetlights made up more than 9% of municipal emissions, which is why the city is planning to convert its tens of thousands of conventional streetlamps — and even a few thousand historic gas streetlamps — to LEDs.
Now, regulators across the U.S. are cracking down on energy use and environmental hazards. But while LEDs seem to have a bright future, communities and experts alike are worried about dark skies...