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Paris, January 25, 2005

An innovative and economical urban lighting system for the city of Albi

On December 2, 2004, the city of Albi (southwestern France) inaugurated a new urban lighting system that will reduce by nearly 50% the amount of energy consumed for the same luminous intensity, using lighting that is better adapted to the human eye. This is the outcome of the European project NumeLite, launched three years ago under the leadership of Georges Zissis (CNRS), involving 11 partners from 6 European countries.


For the inauguration, Georges Zissis, project coordinator, presented the project and the principles on which the new lighting system is based. Representatives of the City of Albi and various European partners attended the ceremony.

In the city of Albi, Aviso Thorn lamps provide lighting on Avenue Gambetta (metal halid lamps, 150W).

© Consortium EU-NumeLiTe (NNE5-2001-0282)

For over 30 years there has been little improvement in the efficiency of urban lighting. Given the quantity of lighting required for the entire planet each day, such an improvement is nonetheless essential for reasons of energy savings and efficiency.

The objective of the European project NumeLiTe (within the framework of the European Union  "Energy" program) was to design and produce an innovative, economical urban lighting system and to demonstrate its potential on site.

In particular, the program aimed to improve the source luminous efficacy — i.e., to increase the luminous flux produced (measured in lumens) per electric watt consumed — and to improve the color rendering of lighting — i.e., to obtain lighting that reproduces the colors of the world we live in. For urban lighting, a 2% increase in the source luminous efficacy can reduce the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere by 6 to 7 million tons, which corresponds to 1% of the decrease laid down in the Kyoto Protocol on the environment.

 

Georges Zissis, head of the “Intense Photon Sources” team at the Center for Plasma Physics and Applications in Toulouse (CPAT, CNRS-Université Paul Sabatier) coordinated the NumeLiTe project. For many years his laboratory has been working on luminous sources for lighting and industrial applications.

 

The new system is based on new generation metal halid lamps with ceramic archtubes that produce high quality white light, with excellent efficiency. These lamps are placed in specially designed fixtures to better distribute light on the roadways and avoid light pollution problems. The lamps receive energy from new electronic ballasts that can be managed by remote control through the city's electric wires or via radio waves from a central post set up at the Albi City Hall. This makes it possible to control the quantity of light at all times and to program the system's operations. Finally, in order to increase energy savings, the system takes into account the characteristics of the human eye, which at night is sensitive to wavelengths shifting toward blue.

 

As a full partner of the consortium, the city of Albi was selected for the installation of the pilot lamps. Albi is the only city in Europe which has got this innovative system. Installation of the new lamps began in March 2004, at four of the main access streets (roadways and semi-pedestrian streets) leading to the town center, and one street outside the town center. To date, 90 of the 120 street lamps provided for in the final project have been installed. Initial results on the Albi site show that, with the same consumption of energy, the new system produces nearly two times more light than the previous system. We can thus confirm that this system will lead to significant energy savings, thereby contributing to sustainable development and regional development.

 

The NumeLiTe project developed over three years (from January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2004) and drew on a multidisciplinary consortium of 11 partners [1][1], both public and private, from 6 European countries. The total cost of the project was 6.6 million Euros.  The European community provided 2.8 million Euros in  subsidies to the project and the Swiss and British members of the consortium each received 0.5 million Euros in subsidies from their governments.

 

It is estimated that approximately 30 billion electric lamps provide lighting for the entire planet, with 10 billion new lamps produced each year. Global consumption of lighting equals more than 2,000 TWh [2][2] in electric energy per year, i.e., more than one-tenth (approximately) of global electricity production. An industrialized country uses, on average, 10 to 15% of its annual electricity production for lighting (12% in France, more than 19% in the United States). A developing country, where lighting is a priority need, uses a much higher proportion (37% in Tunisia, 89% in Tanzania).

 

In 1999, France consumed 41 TWh for lighting. Around 60% of this energy is used by the service sector. Lighting of public roadways consumes 10% of the total amount, while 30% goes to lighting homes. In 20 years the consumption in homes has tripled (5 TWh in 1979,  compared to 14 TWh in 1999). From an economic and industrial point of view, the corresponding market is thus huge. In addition, lighting is responsible for environmental pollution (visual pollution at night) and the emission of greenhouse gases due to the production of the corresponding electric energy. These problems are likely to grow worse since, according to OECD forecasts, global lighting needs will increase threefold over the next ten years.

 

The value of a more economical urban lighting system is clear. The significant initial investment should be paid off in less than 10 years, while the lifespan of a public lighting unit is 30 to 40 years.

 

 

aviso de jour

© consortium EU-NumeLiTe (NNE5-2001-0282)

Aviso Thorn street lamp by day

  
Aviso de nuit

© consortium EU-NumeLiTe (NNE5-2001-0282)

Aviso Thorn street lamp when lit

Notes:

[1] France: CPAT (CNRS-Université Paul Sabatier, CNRS UMR 5002)
Electro-technical Laboratory of Montpellier (Université Montpellier 2)
Sinapse SA (Paris Region) (SME)
Thorn France (Les Andelys) (Industrial partner for the lamps)
City of Albi (Technical Services) (End user)
Great Britain: General Electric Lighting (Leicester) (Industrial partner)
TRL Ltd (formerly the Transport Research Laboratory)
Portugal: Department of Physics (University of Madeira)
Germany: Luxmate SW (Munich)(Industrial partner)
Switzerland: Knobel (Enenda) (Industrial partner)
Greece: High Temperature Chemistry Laboratory (FORTH ICE/HT, Patras)

[2] 1 TWh = 1 terawatt-hour = 1 billion kilowatt-hours. One kilowatt-hour is the amount of energy used by a one kilowatt (1000 watt) appliance in one hour. For the sake of illustration, the power of an electric radiator is about one kilowatt and a nuclear power station unit produces around 1 gigawatt (1 million kilowatts) of electricity.

Contact information:

Researcher contact:
Georges Zissis, +33 5 61 55 69 96,
georges.zissis@cpat.ups-tlse.fr

CNRS Department of Engineering Sciences:
Helena Devillers, +33 1 44 96 42 32,
helena.devillers@cnrs-dir.fr

Press contact:
In Paris: Isabelle Tratner, +33 1 44 96 49 88, isabelle.tratner@cnrs-dir.fr
Regional: Carine Desaulty, +33 5 61 33 61 10, carine.desaulty@dr14.cnrs.fr

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