You can still see them in many places in Thuringia – old street lamps with yellow light. However, the trend is not only towards LED lights because of the energy savings. Many municipalities are getting help from the state.
Erfurt (dpa/th) – Thuringia’s municipalities use financial grants from the state to convert their street lighting to energy-saving LED technology. Since 2018, more than 2.8 million euros have flowed for projects in a total of 126 cities and communities, the Ministry of the Environment said on request in Erfurt. So far around 50,000 street lights have been optimized throughout Thuringia. In the past year alone, almost one million euros were made available, primarily for large municipal projects, including those in the state capital of Erfurt.
Environment Minister Bernhard Stengele (Greens) expects high demand for the financial support again this year in view of the situation on the electricity market. Municipalities that use the Klima Invest funding program to replace old street lamps or lights would benefit threefold, the minister said. “They save energy and thus costs while protecting the climate and insects at the same time.”
The yellow light from old street lamps, which often radiates in all directions, attracts insects at night, which die circling around the light. Experts said that the lower the color temperature, the greater the insect protection. The highest subsidy is therefore also given at low color temperatures. Then up to 30 percent of the investment costs would be contributed from the state treasury, said a ministry spokesman.
The municipalities are advised by the Thuringian Energy Agency, which provides information on technology, savings and also on reducing light pollution. According to them, the energy costs for street lighting can be reduced by 50 to 80 percent by switching to LED technology. On average, a municipality pays at least 100 euros per year for electricity per conventional street light. In small and medium-sized communities, street lighting is often responsible for more than half of the total electricity consumption in the public sector.
The Ministry of the Environment explained that the Climate Invest program was funded with a total of 16 million euros this year. This would not only support new lighting technology for streets, but also many other climate protection projects in Thuringia. A further 50 million euros are available in 2023 and 2024 via the climate pact concluded for the first time between the state and local authorities, which could also be used for LED street lights.
According to the Energy Agency, the savings potential of LED technology has not always been fully exploited because the level of lighting is often raised across the board when converting to LED. This reduces the possible energy savings considerably.
