The move is in-keeping with Saint Lucia's national energy policy for improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions.

The Government of Saint Lucia is collaborating with LUCELEC to replace the island's current high pressure sodium (HPS) streetlights with more energy efficient light-emitting diode (LED) streetlights.

The lights are installed and maintained by LUCELEC, but the electricity that they consume is paid for by the Government of Saint Lucia.

The switch to LED lights is in-keeping with the provisions of Saint Lucia's national energy policy for improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions and the use of fossil fuels.

LED lights are more environmentally friendly, consume less electricity, require less maintenance and last longer than HPS lamps. Replacing HPS lamps with LEDs will also assist with reducing government expenditure on electricity.

The St. Lucia Electricity Services Limited (LUCELEC) has already installed close to 250  LED streetlights in Castries. The switch is part of a broader plan to eventually replace approximately 20,000 streetlights placed all over Saint Lucia. LUCELEC and the Government of Saint Lucia are discussing the time frame for the replacement, since the existing lights have not reached the end of their useful life, and given that the cost of replacing the entire stock will run into millions of dollars.

The LED lights used in Castries were chosen following a LUCELEC pilot project where the performance of six models of LED streetlights from five different manufacturers was assessed. LUCELEC Business Development Manager, Victor Emmanuel, said this approach was taken to ensure the best product was chosen for the needs of the country, given the scale of investment to be made.

Ahead of the installation of the LED lights in Castries, a similar undertaking was carried out in Gros-Islet, where 50 HPS streetlights were replaced with LED lights.

The next phase of this island-wide initiative will be carried out in Vieux-Fort.