The city of West Asheville is under the process of upgrading Phase II of a streetlight with LED bulbs, from Monday to Thursday between the hours of 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. with no expectations of traffic disruption.

Date back to the spring of 2010, the City has successfully installed 700 lights in River District and Kenilworth neighborhoods in Phase I of the street light upgrade project. Phase II has a broader reach and will involve 2800 streetlights across West Asheville, Kenilworth and Oakley.

Phase I of the four year initiative began in May 2011 and has generated $32,000 in actual savings. City Council’s approval of the Green Capital Improvement Plan rounds out the triple bottom line impact of the project. The plan, adopted in the 2011-2012 budget commits all dollar savings from municipal energy efficiency projects to future energy efficiency projects

The City of Asheville is the first in the nation to implement this innovative financial model where all the energy savings pay for the streetlight investment. Once completed all four phases are expected to save $650,000 annually and 2628 tons of avoided carbon which is equal to the amount of carbon absorbed from 60,000 trees.