Streetlight Upgrade
Replaced 42 High Pressure Sodium streetlights with high efficiency LED streetlights along Wright Brothers Blvd SW, between the Eastern Iowa Airport and 6th Street SW.
Optically Programmable Signal Head Upgrades
Replaced 90 incandescent limited vision traffic signal heads with electronically steerable beam traffic signal heads in various locations throughout the City.
Blairs Ferry Road Signal Coordination Project
Traffic signal timing and coordination project to smooth traffic flow along Blairs Ferry Road, between 10th Avenue/Blairs Forest Way and C Avenue NE. The project has reduced idling times, which reduces air pollutant emissions and leads to an estimated fuel cost savings of $1 million per year!
Lighting Upgrades of Downtown Parkades
Several downtown parkades have been the recipients of energy-efficient lighting retrofits, receiving either fluorescent or LED lighting upgrades, in addition to being connected to the citywide Energy Management System. Since the completion of these projects, the downtown parkades have experienced a combined savings of approximately 2,400,000 kilowatt hours! This is equivalent to:
- Approximately $170,000
- 1,654 metric tons of CO2 equivalent
- Annual greenhouse gas emissions from 348 passenger vehicles
- CO2 emissions from the electricity use of 151 homes for one year
The graph below illustrates the energy reduction seen at the 3rd Avenue Parkade following the upgrade to LED lighting fixtures. The energy usage decreased from an average of about 50 kW to about 25 kW!
Water Pollution Control Facility
A 4.3% reduction in the average number of kilowatt hours used per day has been achieved, in part, by replacing flood-damaged pumps with more efficient pumps and variable frequency drives.
WPCF has also been off-setting natural gas consumption used to fuel the on-site incinerator by using methane biogas that is generated as a by-product of the facility's anaerobic reactors. This practice is responsible for a natural gas savings of approximately 19.5 billion BTUs in Fiscal Year 2013! This is equivalent to:
- 1,034 metric tons of CO2 equivalent
- Annual greenhouse gas emissions from 203 passenger vehicles
- CO2 emissions from the electricity use of 94 homes for one year
Water Department
A savings of $36,000 a year in electric costs is expected following the installation of energy-efficient motors on vertical well pumps.
Lighting Upgrades at Multiple City Facilities
Energy-efficient lighting upgrades are taking place in many City facilities. High Pressure Sodium parking lot and roadway lighting, in addition to other exterior fixtures, are being replaced with LED fixtures at the Police Department, the Water Pollution Control Facility, and the Water Department's Administration building, J Avenue Plant, and Northwest Plant. Below is a photo of the parking lot of the Water Department Administration building following the installation of the new LED fixtures.
In addition to the exterior lighting projects underway, all of the interior lighting at the City's largest energy consuming facility, the Water Pollution Control Facility, are also being upgraded. The existing fixtures are being replaced with energy-efficient fluorescent lights connected to occupancy and daylight sensors that are designed to increase energy savings.
