The United State Department of Energy (DOE) announced today that Seattle City Light has been selected to lead a national effort to guide municipalities in evaluating LED street lights. Edward Smalley of Seattle City Light will lead the Municipal Solid-State Street Lighting Consortium, which will collect, analyze, and share information and lessons learned related to LED street lighting demonstrations. Many municipalities hope to take advantage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act/Block Grant funding to replace existing street lighting with energy-efficient LEDs.

The DOE says that starting today, cities and power providers and others who invest in street and area lighting are invited to join the Consortium and share their experiences through national and regional meetings, webcasts, web-based discussion forums, and other means. The DOE notes that most of the planned demonstrations are similar except for geographic location, which impacts local climate, cost of electricity, and related details.

The consortium’s goal is to build a repository of field experience and data that will accelerate the learning curve for buying and implementing high-quality and energy-efficient LED street lights. The DOE Consortium efforts are funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The DOE says that membership in the Consortium is open to municipalities, utilities, and energy efficiency organizations, with participation at various levels from other interested parties. Interested parties can sign up to be consortium members with the online consortium charter.