The Mediterranean local communities play a key role in the energy transition. Cities are in the best position to take actions on the ground and to meet local needs in order to address pressing challenges related to growing energy demand, the climate emergency, and the need to find innovative and efficient solutions for their citizens.
The Mediterranean region is rich in renewable energy sources and has a huge potential to increase energy efficiency in areas such as street lighting, cooling and heating, building construction and renovation.
Under the umbrella of a Memorandum of Understanding signed at COP25 in December 2019, the Copenhagen Centre on Energy Efficiency and the Union for the Mediterranean join forces in this exercise in order to support municipalities in their efforts to achieve a sustainable energy transition.
Through the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) Energy Platforms, a unique dialogue forum to exchange on energy issues in the Mediterranean region, more than 20 municipalities from Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Palestine and Algeria have joined the Copenhagen Centre on Energy Efficiency in a new exercise.
Using a tool for self-rapid assessment developed by the Centre, the municipalities will gain valuable insights on the potential to accelerate energy-efficient street lighting implementation.
Efficient street lighting can reduce energy demand
Street lighting in many places represents up to 40 per cent of the electricity bills at a municipal level, with electricity use for lighting expected to grow about 50 per cent in the next two decades. However, energy-efficient lighting solutions, such as LED, can help reduce demand by 40 to 60 per cent.
Working with United for Efficiency, the Copenhagen Centre on Energy Efficiency has developed a tool (soon to be made available online) that allows the user to get a comparison of the savings that the different available solutions could bring to their specific case. This includes a benchmarking between the baseline with the potential savings that LED lighting could bring, with and without control features.
The outputs of the tool point to the specific energy and financial savings and avoided GHG emissions that could be achieved together with an overview of the required investment and payback period.
Efficiency at the local level
The Copenhagen Centre on Energy Efficiency and the Union for the Mediterranean signed a Memorandum of Understanding during COP25 in Madrid in December 2019. One of the objectives of the agreement was to collaborate in the support to the implementation of energy efficiency measures at the local level.
During 2019, the Copenhagen Centre presented the Union for the Mediterranean with several cases for assessment of energy-efficient street lighting from Argentina, sparking the interest for joining the exercise, to achieve the potential to accelerate energy-efficient street lighting implementation in the Mediterranean Region.
Moving on to implementation
The Union for the Mediterranean and the Copenhagen Centre on Energy Efficiency will then work together to explore the possibility of a second phase, focusing on moving into implementation of the identified energy efficiency measures, expecting to grasp real impact from this collaboration in order to support local authorities in their energy transition.