Genoa cuts 14,000 tonnes of CO2 with sustainable street lighting

Approximately 245 square kilometres of municipal territory overflown with an aircraft equipped with advanced sensors to give life to the Genova Future City Map project, the first in Italy to remote sensing from the sky for mapping urban assets. This is just one of the actions included in a broader energy efficiency plan undertaken by the Municipality of the Ligurian capital, which has joined the Consip light service 4 convention (to entrust urban lighting and other services to a manager), under which, from 2020, the energy service company City Green Light will take care of Genoa's public lighting. The company, in its 9-year mandate, now more than halfway through, has planned a total investment of EUR 34 million.

The aerial remote sensing project made it possible to classify more than 50,000 roofs to assess their photovoltaic potential, analysing exposure, shading and slope; to quantify the photovoltaic power that can be installed on the entire municipal territory; to monitor the efficiency of existing systems; and to identify thermal anomalies in buildings, to support energy efficiency measures and provide useful data for the development of energy communities.

Moreover, explains Tomaso Naldi, director of City Green Light's Northern Italy business unit, the company's intervention most closely related to urban lighting has yielded significant results. For example, "reports of malfunctions in public lighting systems have almost halved in five years (-46%), with a monthly average that, from 1,067 requests for intervention in 2020, has plummeted to 578 (data referring to the last 12 months, ndr)".

Moreover, continues Naldi, 'to date, more than 50 thousand lighting points in the city have been made efficient out of a total of 58 thousand (the remainder had already adopted LED technology), an initiative that, together with the others planned, allows Genoa to cut 14 thousand tonnes of CO2 emissions and achieve energy savings of 70%. But also to accredit itself as one of the most innovative regional capitals in Italy and on the international scene, thanks to projects such as the aforementioned Genova future city map, or Lighting for Genoa, a virtuous example of how lighting can transform and redevelop urban space, enhancing the historical and cultural heritage".

In fact, this latest initiative involved nine squares in the historic centre, transformed into evocative settings thanks to a series of scenic LED lighting fixtures (installed by City Green Light, which also takes care of their maintenance), and won the international Luci cities & lighting awards 2024. The scenographic lighting project was realised with the contribution of lighting designers belonging to the Women in lighting Italy network. City Green Light has also been responsible for the renovation of the monumental lighting of numerous other prestigious sites in Genoa's historic centre.