The Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests will launch this year, through the Administration of the Environmental Fund (AFM), a program for financing ecological lighting in Romanian cities and communes. The budget established for 2020 is 384 million lei; the localities will be enabled to replace the high energy consuming lighting fixtures with LED lighting fixtures. At the same time, the administrations will be able to purchase dimming / remote management systems, which allow the regulation of the lighting flux, the ministry announced in a press release.
The ministry has launched a draft ministerial order for the approval of the Guide for financing the program. According to it, the localities with up to 4,000 inhabitants can receive up to 500,000 lei for such a project, while those with more than 4,000 inhabitants can access the amount of one million lei, through the AFM.
“The street lighting program will reduce electricity consumption in each city in Romania by up to 40%. This way, beyond reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we will also achieve a consistent decrease in the local and national electricity bill”, said Costel Alexe, Minister of Environment, Water and Forests. “Today, more than 20% of the total electricity consumption of a locality comes from street lighting. And these numbers are also responsible for a permanent source of pollution with carbon dioxide emissions and high costs for local governments.”
According to the authorities, the budget allocated for 2020 will allow about 700 localities in Romania to start such investments, benefiting from a financial support of maximum 90% for energy efficiency projects of public lighting.
After the conclusion of the public consultation (April 18), all the observations and proposals received will be analyzed, and the final version of the financing guide will be published in the Official Gazette of Romania. After the publication of the guide, the financing session will be organized, and the UATs will be allowed to submit the documentation, in order to participate in the program.