Does it make sense for beaches to be illuminated in the early hours of the morning in winter? Is it necessary for street lamps to stay on until daybreak? Is it good economy to buy low-consumption bulbs when they are three times more expensive?

Until a few years ago, these questions would not even have been raised, but these days, when cuts are having to be made in almost every sphere of spending, the need to achieve greater energy efficiency in public lighting has become imperative, although not so much due to environmental consciousness on the part of councils as the sheer necessity of reducing electricity bills.

Whatever the reason, what is certain is that significant savings can be made on street lighting. Billing figures from the Sevillana-Endesa electricity company show a two per cent reduction between January and November last year, instead of the normal increase of about 10 per cent.

The measure which is most widespread is the progressive replacement of conventional lamps with low-consumption ones, although these are also being replaced by those with LED technology - now generally used in traffic lights - which lasts for more than ten years and offers a 40 per cent reduction in spending (80 per cent in comparison with traditional lights), but they are between three and five times more expensive. Councils are also reducing the times of operation of street lights (delaying the time they are switched on and bringing forward the time they are switched off), reducing the intensity of the lights, turning them off altogether, reducing their power at midnight, turning off alternate lights in quiet areas and leaving public areas such as beaches, parks which close at night, schools and sports facilities in the dark.

The director of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Malaga, José Antonio Aguado, urges councils to choose energy efficiency even though it requires a greater initial investment, because sooner or later, that investment will duly be recovered”.

The life span of LED lamps is about four years, although the real expense is in the installation of luminous flow reducers. Each unit costs about 4,000 euros but, thanks to the saving of between 30 and 40 per cent which is provided by the reduction in the intensity of the lights at certain times, the investment is recovered within two and a half years. For the moment, this double level of illumination is being installed progressively in Malaga, Torremolinos, Benalmádena, Mijas, Vélez and, in a trial phase, in Fuengirola.

Malaga city council takes the matter very seriously, because the 55,000 lights in the city cost the local authority 6.1 million euros last year. It could have been worse, because the action plan put into effect by the council in 2009 has compensated for the continual price rises (up to 79 per cent for some concepts) by generating a saving of 2.5 million euros a year, as well as reducing light contamination by one third and ceasing to release 7,500 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere a year. This is the result of installing astronomical clocks which automatically calculate the times of sunrise and sunset according to their geographical location, then delay the time the lights come on by ten minutes and switch them off ten minutes earlier (these 20 minutes have reduced the electricity bill by 200,000 euros a year) and, above all, the progressive installation of power reducers.

A pilot project is also being tested at present to check the suitability of LED lamps in the street lighting in the Paseo del Parque and surrounding areas such as the Pedro Luis Alonso gardens, Puerta Oscura and La Coracha.

La Misericordia district of Malaga has become a pioneer in reducing consumption and CO2 emissions and using renewable energies. The project includes intelligent meters, electric cars, recharging posts and, on the seafront, streetlamps which function through sun and wind energy. The aim is to make Malaga a Smart City, whose illumination is 100 per cent ecological.

Darker beaches

Nor is Fuengirola being left behind in reducing its energy consumption. The council will take advantage of improvement works in streets to test new forms of lighting. In one, streetlamps with timers will be installed so that the intensity is reduced after midnight, while in another street LED lights will be used. Since November, the strength of the beach illumination has been reduced considerably and it is turned off completely at midnight (in the summer it will remain on until 2 a.m.). Lighting is also switched off in parks which close at night. These measures are providing savings of some 80,000 euros a year.

Marbella is achieving slightly greater savings (90,000 euros) just by reducing the operating time of the street lamps by half an hour, something which has been applied since last summer. The council is also testing LED lights.

Similar measures are being put into effect in Ronda, where the council is also planning to remove lights from streets which are too bright. Similarly, in the main street of Antequera, the spotlights which illuminated the façades of buildings have been turned off since early December because they are already lit by the street lamps.