CONTEXT

In Switzerland, the uptake of LED technology for street lighting is growing. There are numerous examples of municipalities that have entirely switched to LED street lighting. However, there are several older, less efficient street lighting technologies still in use, including high-pressure sodium vapour (HPS), metal halide (MH), mercury vapour (MV), and some other less common technologies used for special purpose street lighting.

Based on data from expert interviews, BASE estimates that LED currently represents around 10 per cent of the lighting points in Switzerland. The technologies most suitable for replacement by LED – HPS, MH and MV – now account for 87 per cent of the street lighting.

Upgrading to more efficient lighting technology presents enormous investment opportunities for Swiss municipalities with a significant potential to reduce electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

ANALYSIS

UrbanShares is a platform dedicated to supporting sustainable infrastructure in Switzerland, mainly focused on the upgrading of street lighting in municipalities and public roads through Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs) and private investments.

UrbanShares plans to use and blend two different financial vehicles to provide project finance to these projects; a) institutional investors, which would provide at least 50 per cent of the total capital requirements, and b) individuals/citizens that are interested in investing in sustainable public infrastructure (efficient street lighting system) and obtain stable and long-term financial returns while also contributing to the improvement of public street lighting quality, safety, and national environmental targets.

OUTCOME

BASE estimated that 775,000 lighting points are suitable to upgrade. Over the course of five years, upgrading all old points would save 130 GWh of electricity generation each year – enough to power almost 25,000 households, or all of the homes in a city the size of Biel – and reduce CO2 emissions by 11,700 tonnes – enough to take 6,500 cars off the roads.

In addition to significant energy savings, LED technology also offer better lighting quality, improved road safety, longer lifetimes, and don’t contain the hazardous substances that many old technologies contain.

According to BASE analysis, the challenges that have slowed the uptake of LED in many municipalities in Switzerland include:

• Significant upfront investments needed from the annual municipal budget competing with other expenditures.
• Perceived uncertainty regarding new technologies.
• Municipality being the risk-taker of predicted energy and cost savings and adequacy of technology choice.
• Fragmented market. In Switzerland, there are 2,396 municipalities, with the vast majority having less than 10,000 inhabitants.

To help overcome these barriers and successfully tap into the vast potential presented above, BASE is partnered with ecos to investigate ways to support municipalities to upgrade their public street lighting systems, including through citizen-based investments.