Public lighting in Italy costs too much but delivers too little
Energy — di Cecilia Bergamasco
Italy spends 1 billion euros a year lighting its cities, yet one in two Italians feels unsafe. Schools and hospitals are among the worst lit
Public lighting in Italy costs too much but delivers too little
Italy spends 1 billion euros a year lighting its cities, yet one in two Italians feels unsafe. Schools and hospitals are among the worst lit
Over the past 12 months, half of all Italians — 29.3 million people — have felt unsafe in a public place due to poor lighting. What's more, six million Italians regularly feel afraid of the dark or of poor public lighting on streets, squares and in gardens. And despite this, Italy is the second country in Europe, after Spain, with the highest spending on public lighting: 1 billion euros a year. These are the somewhat disconcerting findings that emerged from research conducted by Censis on behalf of Gewiss, an Italian company operating internationally in the production of solutions and products for home automation, energy and lighting technology for the residential, tertiary and industrial sectors. Adding to this contradictory picture is the fact that Italy is also the country in the world with the highest light pollution relative to its land area.
Who is afraid of the dark
It is young women (76.2 per cent) who fear the dark most, followed above all by residents of large cities at 71.5 per cent, those in the South and the Islands (62.6 per cent) and residents of Central Italy (58.5 per cent). On the subject of poor lighting, millennials (70.6 per cent) and university graduates (64.5 per cent) are also particularly attentive and judge the lighting of public spaces and workplaces to be thoroughly inadequate.
According to the survey's findings, the public places that are most poorly lit are predominantly roads outside urban areas, followed by gardens, parks and car parks. Urban streets also turn out to be poorly lit.
Poorly lit schools and hospitals
Beyond roads, poor lighting also affects schools and hospitals. 2.6 million parents of schoolchildren believe that lighting in school buildings is inadequate. Insufficient lighting is a particular issue in schools in southern regions (28.5 per cent, 5.5 per cent above the national total). Meanwhile, 9.2 million Italians say they have been in hospitals and other poorly lit facilities over the past year. It is, once again, the southern regions that record the worst lighting in healthcare facilities, at 26 per cent (+7.9 per cent compared to the national average), followed by large cities (22.2 per cent, +4.1 per cent compared to the national average).
By contrast, shopping centres and supermarkets are always very — perhaps too — brightly lit: only 6.4 per cent of respondents had visited ones that were poorly lit. Finally, 82 per cent of Italians believe that illuminating monuments, statues, buildings and architectural works is a way of enhancing them and encouraging more visits.
The costs of public lighting
Italy is poorly lit despite the exorbitant spending deployed. Italian municipalities spend 1 billion euros a year on public lighting, equal to 18.7 euros per inhabitant — the highest cost recorded at European level after Spain.
Annual per-capita consumption for public lighting in Italy is 107 kWh: more than double that of Germany at 50 kWh, the United Kingdom at 42 kWh, and a third more than France. The cause can be attributed to the fact that Italy installs lighting systems with excessively high power ratings, with an average consumption of 105 kilowatt-hours, compared to 51 kilowatt-hours across Europe. This means that Italy has an installed capacity per urbanised area that is more than double that of most European countries.
Smart, efficient lighting
To overcome the problem, it would be useful to rethink the public lighting service, taking into account citizens' safety, the aesthetic and functional quality of spaces, and new budgetary constraints. The solution comes from technological innovation — smart solutions that can cut costs (by providing light only and exclusively when and where it is needed) while at the same time meeting citizens' expectations in terms of quality and safety. Technological LED lighting solutions for cities now exist that are capable not only of achieving significant cost reductions, but of delivering direct benefits to citizens through new connected services such as Wi-Fi, cameras and air pollution monitoring — the so-called smart lampposts.