"But the Mayor said the lights were always going to be green...."
London’s traffic lights are always going to be green after an announcement by the Mayor of London this week that over three and a half thousand sets of lights were going to be replaced with energy saving LED bulbs. These LED bulbs will save Transport for London about £200million a year in energy costs as well as reducing carbon emissions by 60%. They also last around ten times longer than ordinary bulbs reducing maintenance costs.
In a quote strangely reminiscent of northern comic Peter Kay, Bozza said, “I’ve seen the future – garlic bread – and it comprises these tip-top, energy-busting traffic lights. Installing these eco-bulbs will cut the climate change emissions coming from London’s galaxy of traffic lights by more than half, as well as save money from energy bills.”
The project will cost £2.4million and will reduce the capital’s carbon emissions by six hundred tonnes per annum.
£200 million is rubbish. If we assume they are 100 W bulbs that comes to about 3 million kWh. At 10p/kWh this is only £300k. 40% of this is near £200k so that’s probably what they meant.