Brighter city lights may soon become a reality after a coalition of local councils made waves for a state government grant application for $61 million.
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The Southern Lights Project will involve 41 local councils, including Wagga, and will replace 80,000 lights from Bega to Broken Hill with smart technology.
Plans were originally announced nine months ago, but the recent application for state government money has given the project new life.
“About the same time we put in the application in October, we also began putting together a business case to all of the local councils that will be involved,” said Julie Briggs, CEO of the council coalition parent REROC.
“In the chance that the state government funding does not come through, we’re asking whether councils have money in the budget to commit to it.”
Should funding come through, the project is expected to begin by May, and be completed by the end of 2019.
The project will replace lights across the city with energy-efficient LEDs.
In Wagga, an estimated 7000 lights will be upgraded, should the plan go ahead.
On average, the new lights are expected to cut energy consumption by 70 per cent while improving visibility.
The latest push for the LED project comes after Melbourne became the first council in Australia to power all of its city infrastructure with renewable energy.
“The lights will go up and then be connected to a communications centre,” said Ms Briggs.
“They will be able to raise or lower the lighting, so turn the lights up or down with the remote consul.”
Depending on the specificity opted for by individual councils, the project may also include capacity for smart cities technology.
“The communications [infrastructure] will be able to support other smart technology, for example, for turning on and off sprinklers when needed or for sending in a truck to collect garbage at a remote park,” said Ms Briggs.
“At the moment, trucks have to go out just to check if the bin needs emptying, which wastes a lot of manpower. It’s so much better if the bin can tell you itself that it needs emptying.”