T.F. Green Airport has just become greener. They installed new energy efficient LED lights on the airport’s roadway.

The Rhode Island Airport Corporation (RIAC) is seeking to lessen energy consumption and reduce maintenance expenses and carbon emissions. They hired ConEdison Solutions, an energy solutions company, to conduct an energy audit on the airport.

According to a statement provided by Joe DaSilva, assistant vice president of maintenance at Green, the improvements identified by ConEdison for heating, ventilating and air conditioning upgrades, including solar hot water, will cost about $5 million.

All the improvements were paid for by RIAC, with the guarantee from ConEdison Solutions that utility savings will pay for the improvements over time but a specific time frame was not provided.

One of the other problem areas was the lighting on the arrival road, which was lined with metal halide lights. ConEdison Solutions subcontracted the job to RISE Engineering, from Cranston.

RISE Engineering green upgrades across the board, including lighting, insulation and heating systems. The company was founded about 30 years ago and has been expanding ever since. They employ about 150 people who service all of New England. They are in the process of opening a new branch in Albany, N.Y.

In early 2009, RISE teamed up with BetaLED to supply the lights for the project. BetaLED has done 4,000 installations in over 1,000 cities since the introduction of LED lighting. They certainly are not local and they have branch offices in Italy and Australia. BetaLED is the largest privately held LED company in the world.

LED lights (or “light emitting diodes”) are initially more expensive than conventional lights but, according to BetaLED, they cut costs two ways. Michaela Winegard, the east coast sales manager for BetaLED, said energy saving is typically 40 to 70 percent because LED lights last over 100,000 hours and dim gradually rather than burn out suddenly, cutting maintenance costs.

“It’s really a win-win and you have an environmentally friendly product as well,” said Winegard. “Aside from the up-charge price associated with it, there really is no downside.”

Before the lights were bought, there was a demonstration of the lamps at the airport. Impressed with the results, the airport decided to go ahead. They cut the lights on the arrival road by more than half. One hundred and twenty-four 175-watt halogen fixtures were replaced with 50 60-watt LED lamps. DaSilva says the roadway is visibly brighter.

DaSilva said the lighting was not cheap. The LEDs cost about $1.7 million, but both Winegard and Steve O’Neill, project development specialist at RISE, predict the airport’s money will be amortized in less than five years.

The airport also received $25,000 in incentives from National Grid. With power suppliers incentives, companies can defray up to 50 percent of the cost, while smaller companies may be able to save up to 80 percent.

Winegard travels from Maine to Puerto Rico as a sales manager, but as a Rhode Islander, he is thrilled to see efficient options being implemented in his own backyard.

“I could not be happier,” said Winegard. “It just kills me that the Department of Transportation is not taking hold of this.”

Winegard said Los Angeles is in the process of converting 140,000 street lamps and he looks forward to LEDs in other cities as well.

Winegard hopes the airport expands the LEDs into the parking lots. With the LEDs, he said the airport would be able to eliminate every other pole in the parking lots, cutting the number of light fixtures in half. But he doesn’t expect it soon. “It’s going to take a little while, because it’s not on their present plate,” he said.

The LEDs have been bypassed by the planners of the Intermodal project at the airport; they will be installing conventional fluorescent lighting.