Ford installs $25m LED lighting at its manufacturing plants globally

Ford Motor Co. is installing 25,000 LED light fixtures at its manufacturing facilities around the world, as it looks to cut energy use.

The automaker said its energy costs are expected to drop by $7 million annually after it completes the project to install the efficient lighting, made by Dialight, at 18 of its plants.

The lighting is worth more than US$25 million, according to Ford.

“We are extremely pleased to install this leading-edge technology in our manufacturing facilities worldwide,” Ford’s executive vice-president of global manufacturing, John Fleming, said in a statement. “This is a long-term investment in our future that highlights our aggressive approach to lead in environmental improvements and achieve operating efficiencies.”

The project started at the automaker’s truck plant in Michigan, U.S., and will continue throughout the year.

Used to replace traditional high-intensity discharge (HID) and fluorescent lights, the LED fixtures are expected to reduce Ford’s energy use at its manufacturing facilities by a combined 56 million kilowatt-hours annually—enough, Ford said, to power more than 6,000 homes per year.

“Moving to LED gives us impressive efficiency improvement,” said George Andraos, Ford’s director of energy and sustainability. “Ford worked closely with its scientists and suppliers to investigate and closely follow the rapid development of LED lighting.”

The switch to LED lighting is part of Ford’s program to cut energy use per vehicle produced globally by 25 percent by 2015.

According to Andraos, the company has so far cut energy use by 20 percent per vehicle.