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It Never Sleeps, but It's Learned to Douse the Lights

More than 11,000 traffic lights and "Don't Walk" signals in New York City have been switched to light-emitting diodes that use 90 percent less energy than conventional fixtures.

More than 180,000 energy-guzzling refrigerators in public housing projects have been replaced with new ones that use a quarter of the power of the old ones.

By law, the city government can now purchase only the most efficient cars, air-conditioners and copy machines, and soon, computers will be added to the list. New York has one of the largest hybrid bus fleets in the country, and some of the first hybrid taxis.

For years, New York has been the city that not only never sleeps, but the city that hardly ever remembers to turn the lights out. On the coldest days of winter, New Yorkers raise their windows to let out the heat. In the dog days of summer, a husky could freeze in the open doorway of a Fifth Avenue boutique.

But now, measures like more efficient traffic lights and refrigerators are speeding up a long trend making New York one of the most energy-efficient cities in the nation -- and officials in cities like Portland and Seattle that might, in the public mind, seem more environmentally conscious are taking notice.

Environmentalists and urban planners from around the nation hail some of New York City's efforts at energy efficiency as models for doing more with less and, importantly, doing it without asking sacrifices of anyone.

"I'm not aware of any other municipalities going to that extreme," said Dana L. Banks, a senior program manager at Portland Energy Conservation Inc., which works on energy-efficiency programs throughout the Northwest. "New York is looking for every single opportunity it can to save energy it can find."

To be sure, not every one of New York's attempts to improve efficiency has succeeded. One measure to make computers more efficient became bogged down in politics and will not be put into practice until 2008. But most indications suggest that the city's wasteful reputation is changing.

"For people who look closely at energy, the idea of New York being a callous and wasteful place is long dead and buried," said David Hamilton, director of global warming and energy programs for the Sierra Club. "When it comes to following up on new ideas and new technologies and staying ahead of the curve in terms of being smart and economical, New York is clearly among the leaders in the country."

Efficiency is actually a grim necessity in New York. Despite efforts at conservation, demand for electricity in the city has been increasing by 1.5 percent a year; there simply is not enough room to build all the additional power plants that would be needed to meet unlimited demand for energy. Use has to be curtailed, and the city feels it has to lead by example.

Though the savings represent just a portion of the 5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity the entire city uses in a year, the innovation and ease of the efficiency measures have attracted attention. New York's energy diet is based on a simple formula -- a blend of local legislation, state assistance and an awareness of the city's own position as an 800-pound gorilla in the energy market.

"Eventually what happens here starts to happen around the country," said Ashok Gupta, director of the air and energy program for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "The market that New Yorkers provide is clearly an important factor in moving the rest of the country. That's the way markets work."

And that market dynamic helps make New York an energy efficiency laboratory. Environmental groups like the council expend much of their own energy to help shape legislation in New York because they realize that is an efficient way to kick-start national programs. Manufacturers are also attuned to New York's latest trends and needs because the market is simply too big to ignore.

"The city is such a huge consumer of these products that we should set the tone," said Councilman James F. Gennaro of Queens, chairman of the Council's Environmental Protection Committee. "We want to make New York City the most efficient entity it can be."

Sometimes energy is wasted simply because its costs are hidden. At the New York City's public housing projects, tenants do not pay for electricity; the Housing Authority does. About the biggest energy gluttons in the authority's 181,000 apartments were the old refrigerators, some of which were built in the early 1970's. But tenants did not buy them, and the Housing Authority did not control how they were used.

With help from an energy-efficiency program run by the New York Power Authority, the Housing Authority began replacing the old refrigerators several years ago with new ones that use only a quarter as much electricity. The last of them were installed early this year.

"What's different here is that we are promoting the idea of energy efficiency, using less energy and not necessarily saying that anyone has to do without," said Eugene W. Zeltman, president of the New York Power Authority. "If we use energy more wisely there will be more energy for people to consume and less energy for us to produce."

The New York Power Authority has undertaken 1,116 energy efficiency projects in New York and Westchester County, including a pilot program to adapt traffic lights to use light-emitting diodes.

The new lights are brighter, cheaper to use, and last 10 times longer than conventional fixtures. After the Power Authority helped modify the ones in Queens, the New York City Department of Transportation was so pleased with the results that it did the same in the other boroughs. By last February, the signals at all 11,600 intersections in the city had been upgraded. Installation cost $28.2 million -- but the city is saving $6 million a year in energy and maintenance costs.

Earlier this year City Council passed a package of bills requiring the use of clean fuels and the purchase of energy-efficient vehicles. The city will buy substantially more hybrid cars over the next few years and must increase the fuel efficiency of its cars and trucks by 20 percent within a decade.

Just this month the Council passed a bill that would require the landlords of any building that receives a tax break to purchase only refrigerators, air-conditioners and other appliances that are certified as being efficient under the federal government's Energy Star program.

"I'm impressed with what they're doing," Steven S. Nicholas, director of Seattle's Office of Sustainability and Environment, said of New York's efforts. "They've put these issues on the radar screen."

A package of bills still before the Council would apply efficiency standards to computers the city purchases.

Chris Calwell, policy and research director for Ecos Consulting of Portland, Ore., helped the Council draft that bill to require computers use highly efficient power packs. Although the savings in individual machines would be small, the tens of thousands of computers in the city would add up to a substantial amount of wasted energy that could be captured. And less electricity means less pollution from power plants.

"The city should be commended for taking a really significant first step," Mr. Calwell said. But he said the Council gave in to pressure from the manufacturers who argued that it would take time to get the power supply manufacturers in China and Taiwan geared up to produce sufficient numbers of the new energy-efficient power packs. As a result, the deadline to put the new standards into effect was pushed back from next year to 2008.

New York is already a leader in energy-efficient green office buildings, like 7 World Trade Center, which recycles rainwater and uses it in toilets and for irrigation, and computer-controlled heating and lighting.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg wants the remaining tax-delinquent housing stock in the city's hands made available to developers with energy-saving building designs.

And the Enterprise Foundation, which encourages forward-thinking urban development, has helped provide funds for 474 energy-efficient apartments in small- and medium-scale projects in New York City, second in number only to Los Angeles.

"Counter to what most non-New Yorkers might think, New York is a very progressive city for green building," said Jim Himes, director of the Enterprise Foundation office in New York. The mass transit system, multifamily housing, mixed neighborhoods and the fact that developments never go up on virgin land anymore, all make building in New York very energy efficient.

"It's easier to be green here," Mr. Himes said.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section 1, Page 55 of the National edition with the headline: Never Sleeps, But It Douses The Lights. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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