no technical barriers to achieving greenhouse targets, just political will, say city staff - best solar led street light

Electric buses, building renovations and solar upgrades provide Edmonton with the technological capability to meet its climate change commitments by 2030.
City councils can even save money.
But it requires a lot of up-front investment, says Project Manager Mike Melloss, referring to a recently released report on addressing greenhouse gas emissions from urban operations.
"It's a sound financial investment," he said in an interview, describing a plan that would cost $340 million plus $8.
Annual operating expenses of $25 million.
By 2030, it is expected to make more money.
Edmonton will eventually save $76 million.
That's two points from Edmonton's climate change paper.
It set goals 10 years ago, but failed to achieve them, partly because officials were still working on plans.
This time, they believe they have a solid business case for each element and have enough technical experience to know that it will pay off.
The plan will be submitted to the Urban Planning Committee of the Municipal Council on May 22.
International agreements promise Canada to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and keep the global average temperature between 1. 5 C and 2 C.
For Edmonton, that means a 50% reduction in emissions from urban operations by 2030, Melrose said.
This will put the city on a carbon-neutral track in 20 years.
This is the goal set out by Mayor Iverson in the Edmonton Declaration. Mayor Edmonton reached an agreement at the recent climate change conference.
Municipal officials have outlined a series of goals for adoption by the Security Council, but have proposed a 50% reduction.
Under the plan, the city will: energy renovation of 100 buildings, purchase 440 electric buses to replace diesel buses, intensify efforts to replace 46,000 street lamps with LED lights, and install solar energy in the best urban buildings with roof space. (
20 MW or 6% of the city's total electricity consumption
* 100% of the city's remaining electricity comes from renewable sources.
Melros said the first four options will repay the investment over time.
For example, LED lights were turned off in nine years.
On average, he said, they will pay for their energy renovation in 11 years, but that depends on the buildings and jobs they need.
When buying green energy, he said, the city could use its large contracts to encourage new companies to start utilizing wind, biomass or solar power elsewhere.
Calgary already generates 100% of its electricity from renewable sources.
David Dodge, chairman of the Advisory Committee on Energy Transition in Edmonton, said the big change was that Edmonton now had data and experience to prove that its plan worked.
"It's a huge change," he said.
"We can actually see a road.
"He hopes Edmonton will find a financing mechanism to help cover the cost, because this debt is different from borrowing money to build bridges.
In this debt, savings will repay investments over time.
"Cities and families face the same dilemma," he said.
They didn't pay cash in advance.
Now, Parliament may consider the cost of new street lights and what it can build with that money.
However, green bonds or other instruments can categorize these expenditures into different categories of capital budgets.
Estolte@Postmedia. comtwitter.