MP Marc Goergen recently filed a parliamentary enquiry concerned with the removal of road lights on several motorway sections across the Grand Duchy.
The lights were removed for being outdated and in an effort to reduce light pollution as well as energy consumption. MP Goergen thus wanted to know how many lights have been removed since 2013, how many kilometres are affected, and how much energy has been saved since.
Furthermore, he wanted to know if there are plans to remove more lights in the future, how much energy the country’s wider lighting infrastructure consumes, and if studies about the positive effects of reduced light pollution around the respective motorway sections have been made.
In his response to the enquiry, Minister Bausch explained that lights were removed on 11.5 kilometres of motorway sections. A total of 702 poles and 814 individual lights were removed.
He underlined that fewer lights clearly lead to less energy consumption, noting that 400,000 kWh are saved on the A6 motorway every year. The A1 and A13 combined amount to 150,000 kWh saved per year. In light of current energy costs, savings thus amount to €130,000 per year.
Public lighting infrastructure consumes 20.6 million kWh per year. Minister Bausch further conveyed that no studies about the positive effects of reduced light pollution have been done.
