By using modern urban lighting solutions, cities and municipalities can not only save energy, but also create liveable and safe public spaces. As part of the Interreg project LUCIA, aconium is supporting partners from five cities across the Baltic Sea region in making even better use of this potential.
Under the leadership of the Hamburg district of Altona, ten project partners from six countries bordering the Baltic Sea are working on solutions to accelerate the use of modern and energy-efficient urban lighting in the LUCIA project. They have all come to the same conclusion: Although technical solutions for greater energy efficiency are available, they have hardly been used to date – such as LED lighting in combination with smart functions such as motion or light sensors to control the lighting. The reasons for this include challenges in taking different expectations and interests into account. There is also not yet a great deal of experience with the procurement of environmentally friendly technologies in municipalities.
The LUCIA project partners will therefore install demonstration projects in Hamburg, Tallinn (Estonia), Porvoo (Finland), Jūrmala (Latvia) and Albertslund (Denmark) in order to make the potential of energy-efficient urban lighting directly tangible. In Tallinn, for example, there are plans to use creative lighting concepts for six parks around the medieval old town to invite residents and visitors to stay even in the darker months of the year. In Albertslund, where the DOLL Living Lab is already a demonstration facility for intelligent outdoor lighting and smart cities, existing luminaires are to be replaced by more economical models with integrated motion detectors.
Compendium and online knowledge platform planned
In addition to these demonstration projects, the LUCIA partners will prepare up-to-date specialist knowledge on technological, ecological, economic and social aspects of sustainable urban lighting in an easily understandable and appealing way so that city administrations in other parts of the Baltic Sea region and beyond can also benefit from it. Plans include a two-part compendium with the working title “Lighting the Baltic Sea Region” and an online knowledge platform on sustainable urban lighting.
Since April 2019, aconium GmbH, together with the Zentrum für Energie, Bauen, Architektur und Umwelt GmbH (ZEBAU), has been supporting the Hamburg Altona District Office and the other LUCIA partners with project management, financial management and transnational communication. The project name LUCIA is based on St. Lucia, which translates as “the shining one”.