By Yi Whan-woo

Seoul City said Wednesday it will adopt a light-emitting diode (LED) lighting system on the city hall, public buildings, roads and subway stations by 2018 to save energy.

The city will install the system on half of the public facilities by 2014 as a part of its long-term plan.

The plan is expected to save up to 80 percent electricity compared to incandescent or halogen bulbs, according to a city official.

“An LED also perfectly fits into our environment protection efforts as it does not use mercury and filaments which can pollute the environment. It reduces waste by one fifth,” he said.

The municipal government will supply up to 800,000 LED lamps to 218 subway stations and 20 underground shopping malls within two years.

Any new buildings to be constructed by the city government or ward offices will be required to adopt the LED lighting system, and streetlamps will be redesigned with sensors that turn off automatically depending on the amount of daylight.

The plan is expected to reduce electricity consumption up to 1,100 gigawatts per year and save 120 billion won ($105 million).

“The 1,100 gigawatts of energy is 30 times what the 63 City Building in Yeouido required last year. The positive impact of our plan is obvious,” an official said.

Private buildings will also benefit as the city will provide them with 7 million LED lamps for free in the next two years amid plans to require those buildings to adopt the energy-saving system. The deadline for private building to install LED lighting is 2030.