THE streetlights in common usage throughout Cyprus have been described as poorly designed and inefficient by Environment Commissioner Charalambos Theopemptou, who has called for their replacement.
“We have to re-examine our street lighting such that we have more productive energy usage,” said Theopemptou.
The current streelights in use in Cyprus are not designed to send their light in a downwards direction but are actually angled slightly upwards. This angling combined with their specific design makes them inefficient at lighting the roads at night. The common street light in use today throughout Cyprus “scatters its light everywhere and in all directions”, according to Theopemptou.
He recommended a number of measures short of changing all the streetlights in Cyprus (which will eventually occur) for reducing the wastage of energy which the current situation produces.
Automatic systems to switch lights on and off as cars or pedestrians approach is one of Theopemptou’s recommendations, as is the carrying out of surveys to ascertain the degree of brightness needed in the first place. On the basis of such surveys dimmer light bulbs could be introduced within the same housings and the installation of variable lighting is also an option.
Redesigning the actual ‘head’ of the street lights currently in use, that is to say the lamp housing, and angling it differently, is another viable option which Theopemtou brought up for consideration.
The other side of the equation in terms of the environmental impact of street lighting is its effect on the flaura and fauna of a country, regarding which no conclusive studies have as yet been carried out in Cyprus. Theopemptou drew the parallel with the human experience where, due to street lighting, we no longer see the stars in the night sky with such clarity and the experience reduced levels of night vision plus lower melatonin levels.
In Cyprus electricity expended on street lighting has actually fallen over two of the past 10 years for which statistics are available (1998 – 2007). From 2000 – 2001, and also between 2003 – 2004, electricity usage for the purposes of street lighting actually decreased in Cyprus. Overall, however, there was a marked increase in electricity usage for street lighting from 45 439KWh in 1998 to 70 301KWh in 2007.
A large part of this expenditure was on motorway lighting as the total expended on street lighting by municipalities throughout Cyprus came in at 36 044KWh for 2007. The wider Nicosia area had the highest consumption of electricity for use in street lighting purposes, totalling 15,028KWh, more than Limassol (7807) and Larnaca (5394) combined. Within Nicosia, Strovolos Municipality actually had a higher consumption than Nicosia Municipality coming in at 4310KWh as compared to 3366KWh.
