Burlingame receives energy grant for lighting improvements

Four California cities, including Burlingame, will make major improvements to their lighting systems using low-interest loans approved yesterday by the California Energy Commission.

The four loans total nearly $2 million and include federal stimulus funding from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Energy Commission funding comes from Energy Conservation Assistance Act which provides low-interest loans for local governments, public and private nonprofit schools and hospitals, public care institutions and other agencies for energy efficiency and energy-producing projects. The program is bond-funded. Additional federal stimulus funding for the loans comes from the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The city of Burlingame will receive a loan of $458,633 to replace 767 of its high-pressure sodium street lights with LED models. The new longer-lasting LED street lights will reduce Burlingame’s electricity bill by roughly $57,500 a year and cut its greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 124 tons of CO2 annually. Burlingame can pay back the loan from the energy savings in less than eight years, according to the commission.

Earlier in the year Burlingame received a federal $150,010 ARRA grant to replace a portion of its old streetlights with efficient LED lamps. It also upgraded the lighting at the fire station, police department, corporate yard, the city garage and the library — improvements that saved Burlingame nearly $29,000 a year in energy costs and reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by almost 76 tons of CO2 a year, according to the commission.

The cities of Kerman, Salinas and Ceres will also receive loans.