India is majorly changing the way its streets light up at night

India is changing the way its streets light up at night, and it’s saving a lot of energy doing so.

Earlier this week, India’s union minister Piyush Goyal announced that more than 200,000 streetlights in south Delhi have been replaced with LED bulbs as part of what he described as the "world’s largest" project of its kind.

Unveiled in 2015, the National Programme for LED-based Home and Street Lighting has already replaced 1.5 million streetlights with LED bulbs in several states including Punjab, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Goa, and Maharashtra.

"It is much more difficult to conserve power, than to produce power," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said when announcing the program three years ago. "While one producing entity can produce a large quantity of power, it requires the active participation of tens of millions of people to conserve that amount of power."

This week, the government inaugurated the second phase of the street lighting programme in New Delhi, through which it aims to install 75,000 more streetlights in places such as parks. In other places, such as Goa, the state government has nearly modernized all the streetlights. The government has partnered with contractors for the task.

LED lamps consume up to 80 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs. The government hopes that it can save 100 billion KwH of electricity annually every year and significantly reduce greenhouse emissions. LED lamps also have better shelf life, lasting for about 10 times longer than fluorescent lamps.