align="justify">A light in the parking lot of Bay City Hall shines a little brighter than the rest.

It's an LED, or light-emitting diode, that uses a fraction of the power of a standard light and lasts longer, but also costs more upfront.

The city is experimenting with the LED parking lot light as a pilot project, and measuring how much energy the light uses, said Phil Newton, acting director of Bay City Light and Power, the city-owned electric utility.

Another few months of tests should help the city decide if it's worth it to install more LEDs in the future, as cities such as Ann Arbor have done, Newton said.

For now, Bay City plans to spend about $43,000 to install 19 standard decorative street lights in front of the downtown Post Office on Washington Avenue.

The City Commission approved the project, with Standard Electric Co. of Bay City, at a meeting on Monday.

Newton said the standard, high-pressure sodium lights will be installed in the spring.

Right now, it would cost about $500 more per light to retrofit poles with LEDs, Newton told Commissioner Marie Kurzer, who raised the LED issue as a way for the city to ''go green.''

But Newton said suppliers have told the city the cost of LEDs should decrease in the future, as they become more widely used.

''We'd love to find some grant money'' to install additional LEDs in the downtown area, Newton said.

LEDs use about a tenth of the electricity of standard, 150-watt street lights, he said.