Street uplighting wastes thousands of liri a year

The Light Pollution Awareness Group has asked Enemalta to introduce a policy under which all new street lighting fixtures or replacements would direct their light to the ground, preventing a waste of energy.

The group was set up in 2000, as an offshoot of the Astronomical Society in conjunction with Nature Trust and Birdlife, to fight light pollution.

Directing the light downwards, through what are known as cut-off installations, also reduce glare for the benefit of motorists and pedestrians.

The group's coordinator Alexei Pace said it would also be beneficial in residential areas to prevent light "trespassing" into private property.

Cut-off lighting would curtail the degradation of the visual environment at night and complement the character of the place.

Malta, Mr Pace added, had five to eight times more lighting than required by international standards.

According to 1997 measurements from space by satellite, 1.83 million kilowatt hours of energy are wasted from uplighting into space each year. Financially, this added up to Lm65,000.

Mr Pace said Malta should follow the example of other countries which had a bigger problem but had done something about it, such as Italy and the Czech Republic. These countries had stopped using normal lighting and turned to cut-off lights instead which did not light upwards.

Cut-off lights cost the same as normal ones but as they were concentrated downwards, the wattage temperature could be reduced ensuring lower consumption and a lower release of carbon dioxide.

Locally, such lights could only be found at the Malta International Airport car park and at the Cirkewwa quay.

Excessive lighting, Mr Pace said, also caused ecological damage. Whole colonies of the Cory's Shear Water, a bird which nested in cliffs, for example, could be deserted especially during the mating season if there was excessive lighting. Turtles could also be lured to land with light instead of the sea, causing their destruction.

Excessive lighting also affected astronomy and valuable scientific research which used to be carried out by Malta had to be reduced because of an increase in lighting.

The group is giving the Dark Sky Award to projects which considered the effects of light pollution. The award last year was given to the Comino Tower, which had been restored by Din l-Art Helwa.

The group joined the other participants at the third European Symposium for Protection of the Night Sky in signing the Stuttgart Resolution expressing concern at the vanishing night skies and the rapid growth of light pollution in Europe and the world.