Grant money can save cities huge sums of money, while helping make vast improvements. That’s exactly what Salinas’s department of engineering and transportation is hoping will happen on Wednesday.

They suggest changing four hundred street lights from the old, inefficient variety to the new LED lights. 

Their report cites a US Department of Energy Conservation Block Grant that would cover the $691,000 price tag.

From newstreetlights.com:

The Department of Engineering and Transportation in the city of Salinas, California, has submitted a report to the city council that recommends the approval of an energy efficient streetlight conversion project. The report specifies the use of LED streetlight fixtures as a replacement for existing high pressure sodium (HPS) streetlights. The report is under review by the Salinas city council, and city officials expect a decision on Wednesday, December 15, 2010. The project will be funded by a grant from the Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) program, in the amount of $691,472.

Engineering and Transportation officials estimate that the EECBG grant will enable the city of Salinas to purchase and install approximately 400 LED streetlight fixtures. For the proposed project, the fixtures will be installed on roadways throughout the city. Salinas has already installed about 100 fixtures in two pilot programs which continue to be evaluated for performance.

Read the full article here.