The City of San Leandro is making great strides in reaching its Climate Action Plan goals by investing in infrastructure retrofits and smart city applications. In early 2016, the City Council selected Climatec, an energy services company, to install USD 5.2 million in energy and water saving equipment, asking for a guarantee that savings would cover 100% of the costs of the improvements and related debt services.
About 5,000 streetlights were replaced with smart LED lamps, implementing our Smart Urban Network as centralized management and control system. The existing city’s fibre optics network was used for high-speed communications, and Paradox Engineering’s infrastructure prepared the city to support multiple smart city applications and services, such as integrated parking systems, public wireless internet service, traffic video surveillance, and more.
In Summer 2017, students from Harvey Mudd College (including a San Leandro High School graduate) interned with Pilot City to develop a Smart Waste Monitoring pilot solution for street trash cans that connected to the Smart Urban Network.
“San Leandro embodies sustainability in action. We invest in green infrastructure and programs to ensure that San Leandro furthers it legacy as a smart and sustainable city,” said Mayor Pauline Russo Cutter.
Climatec calculated that the entire investment will generate USD 8 million saving over 15 years through strategic reductions in energy and water use, and USD 1.5 million in positive cash flow over that time. In addition to the financial benefits, San Leandro’s investments in clean infrastructure will reduce GHG emissions by 1,390 metric tons annually, the equivalent of 3.3 million miles driven in a year.