Dublin City Council was one of nine Irish organisations to take part in a study tour to Germany recently striving towards energy efficient lighting in Ireland.

The tour was organised by DEinternational Ireland, the consultancy wing of the German-Irish Chamber of Industry and Commerce. During the intensive 3 day programme the group visited 15 best practice energy efficient lighting projects throughout Germany. The projects ranged from conventional and historic street lighting retrofits to commercial industrial and architectural lighting examples.

The Study Tour examined how Germany is utilising and benefiting from energy efficient lighting in both public and private projects and so making significant energy savings.

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For the local authorities, the energy efficient street lighting projects were of huge interest as Ireland looks at phasing out its low pressure sodium street lighting over the course of the coming years. LED's were suggested as the most popular energy efficient alternative to conventional lighting. There are many types of public projects in Ireland that could serve to benefit from such energy savings, from swimming pools, libraries and car parks, to cycle ways and river walkways.

"I wasn't aware that LEDS were being as widely used as they are in Germany, in particular in public lighting projects," said Pat Caden, Senior Engineer in Dublin City Council. "This study tour has shown that there is currently a very fast growing market for LEDs, and if Germany is investing heavily in this then Ireland should also be investigating how we can benefit."

The study tour also highlighted some important differences between Ireland and German lighting markets which should be taken into consideration when planning projects in Ireland. In Germany there are a considerable number of gas lamps and high pressure mercury vapour lamps. This type of technology is now rare in Ireland so energy savings in Ireland may not be as stark as in Germany.

Overall the study tour was rated very highly by both German and Irish groups.

(CD/GK)