Some 130 Walloon municipalities have already voted in favour of keeping public lights switched off from midnight to 05:00 a.m. after 31 March, public energy utility ORES said in a statement on Thursday.
During the past five months, the measure “generated an estimated saving of 16,000 MWh and avoided the emission of 4,400 tonnes of CO2 (the equivalent of the emissions of 2,100 vehicles),” the operator points out.
Of the 150 or so municipalities that have already contacted ORES for the period after 31 March, 85% have opted either to continue switching their lights off every night from 00:00 to 05:00 a.m. or to adopt a limited switch-off on weekdays from 00:00 to 05:00, thus excluding Fridays and Saturdays, as well as public holidays.
The other responding municipalities have decided to return to conventional operations, turning their lights on at sunset and off at sunrise.
The lighting changes associated with the chosen option will be carried out in the coming weeks and months, ORES said. However, lights will not be switched back on from 05:00 from 1 May to 31 July, as the running time would be less than 1 hour.
