LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – More solar street lights are popping up across the Las Vegas Valley, and you may soon see them on a public street or parking lot near you.
FOX5 told you how Clark County worked to install a dozen solar street lights on St. Louis Avenue, east of Fremont Street as a solution to copper wire thieves from causing power outages. Now FOX5 has learned that there are two spots in the Enterprise area — a roundabout on Wigwam Avenue and S. Buffalo Drive, and an intersection on W. Pebble Drive and S. Buffalo Drive — that are set to get solar-powered street lights, all pending county funding.
The City of Las Vegas currently uses solar street lights from the same company, Fonroche Lighting America, to illuminate several parking lots across the Arts District and the Downtown area.
City officials tell FOX5, the solar-powered street lights are an easy and portable solution to quickly illuminate additional acquired parking lots. More of these lights will be added in dark alleys to help pedestrians, city officials said.
The areas of Searchlight and Mesquite already use this technology, county officials said.
The portable street lights are adaptable for areas that may not be connected to the grid: according to a company representative, a housing community by Primm is set to utilize these street lights as well.
For years, many European cities have turned to solar lighting for more cost-effective and clean energy solutions, and Fonroche Lighting America has street lights in dozens of U.S. cities. The company’s CEO said West Coast cities are looking for solutions to combat repetitive copper wire thefts and stop street light outages.
“The best way to remove the copper theft issue is to remove the copper, and even better, remove any wire actually, so there is nothing to steal,” said CEO Hocine Benaoum. Benaoum said the company is rolling out 500 street lights to Van Nuys, as the entire Los Angeles area has been plagued by tens of thousands of street light outages caused by copper thieves.
The fixtures are comprised of a battery, solar module, microprocessor to regulate charging and schedule, and the light fixture. The battery lasts 10 to 12 years, and the panel and LED head last 25 years, according to a company official.
How much do they cost? County officials said they amount to roughly $3,761, and $5,600 total with labor.
In comparison, County officials said a traditional pole and fixture is around $1,500, the foundation or base is $6,000, plus $70 per foot for conduit and wire. The cost to repair a street light depends on the damage, county officials said.
“It’s taxpayer money, so you got to make sure it’s reliable. It’s going to take time, but I can bet that within the next probably 10 years, all over the U.S., we will have a few hundreds of thousands of solar street lights installed all over the country,” Benaoum said.
County Chair Tick Segerblom said he is meeting this week with public works officials to learn about more options for solar street lights. He tells FOX5, he sees the potential for solar street lights as a rapid solution to the massive problem: there are still 200 areas across Clark County with outages caused by copper wire thefts.
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