São Paulo, Brazil – Belo Horizonte, one of Brazil’s largest cities, is realizing 50% electricity cost savings by upgrading 182,000 streetlights with new LEDs from Signify (Euronext: LIGHT), the world leader in lighting. The upgrade is part of Brazil's first major public lighting public-private partnership between Belo Horizonte Iluminaçao Publica (BHIP) and Signify. The new LED lights also improve the safety of the citizens on the streets of Belo Horizonte.
The project started in 2017 with a survey of all the public light points, providing information for selecting the best luminaires for each street and scheduling their timely delivery and installation. So far 90% of the installation has been completed and, in these parts, the municipality has saved over 50% in electricity costs as LEDs are more energy efficient than conventional luminaires. This is the equivalent amount of electricity used by an estimated 34,000 Brazilian households in a year. On top of that, the city will be able to realize cost savings in maintenance work and materials as the streetlights last five times longer than conventional streetlights.