This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter.

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March 02, 2016

The Energy Department on February 24 recognized the City of West Palm Beach for its leadership in improving energy efficiency across 1.4 million square feet of building space by 20% within 10 years. The City of West Palm Beach has met its Better Buildings Challenge goal of 20% energy reduction, and announced a new 15% energy reduction goal for 2025.

The City of West Palm Beach is planning on committing a number of new buildings to receive a variety of energy efficiency upgrades, adding on approximately 130,000 square feet of building space to the Better Buildings Challenge.

In 2011, the city initiated a comprehensive upgrade of street lights to new LED technology, which represented 25% of the city’s energy expenditure in 2010. The resulting fixture replacements are credited for enhancing public safety, reducing energy consumption, and saving 54% in energy used by street lights. Through a collaboration with the utility, Florida Power and Light, West Palm Beach is reporting $160,000 per year in energy savings and is dedicated to funding $2.5 million over five years to retrofit more than 3,000 more street lights. See the Energy Department news release and the Better Buildings website.