A £1m project to modernise street lighting throughout Neath Port Talbot is set to break ground this month, delivering hundreds of thousands of pounds of savings for the council.
The replacement scheme, which follows previous works to renew old cables, columns and some lanterns, will see a further 2,000 old style high wattage lamps across the borough replaced with more energy efficient LED lighting. The work includes the replacement of the last few remaining yellow low-pressure sodium lights in the region.
Set to begin at the end of July this year, the new lighting is expected to deliver substantial annual savings of more than £137,000 and 250 tonnes of carbon.
The project has been funded by the Welsh Government’s Wales Funding Programme, which is administered by Salix Finance – an independent organisation providing interest-free loans to the public sector to improve carbon emissions and lower energy bills.
The funding for the project, which is expected to complete at the end of 2020, will be paid back through the savings made on the council’s energy bills through greater energy efficiency.
Neath Port Talbot Council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Streetscene and Engineering, Cllr Ted Latham, said: “It will be good to see further lower energy and reduced maintenance lighting being installed.
“This will not only give the residents of Neath Port Talbot the most up to date street lighting but will also be cleaner and greener for our environment. Furthermore, once the interest-free loan has been repaid; the continued savings will be retained by the Council”.
Francesca Edmonds, Programme Manager at Salix says, “We’re proud to be supporting Neath Port Talbot to deliver this large-scale project. This sets a positive outlook in terms of energy and carbon savings and we look forward to continuing to support the Council with their future carbon reduction efforts.”
The energy saving lighting renewal project ties in with the council’s latest Decarbonisation and Renewable Energy (DARE) strategy, published in June 2020, which outlines what the council has done so far to tackle climate change, while unveiling a series of ambitious alternative fuel projects.
The aim of the new DARE strategy is to make Neath Port Talbot a dynamic centre for fuels of the future, capitalising on its industrial and natural assets as well as its central position in the heart of South Wales.
