Design & Architecture (lighting)

The Guardian reports that Rome has plans to chase a 40% reduction in wasted energy. This will be achieved in part by reducing the brightness of their 170,000 public street lights. “Shops will also be encouraged to turn off their internal lights at midnight. Monuments in the city are already illuminated by lights which change from white to a more diffused yellow glow during the evening but their power may be reduced further.” The public utility (ACEA), in charge of the street lighting, as well as monument and residential lighting, has been asked by the director of public works, Giancarlo D'Alessandro, to get on to it as soon as possible. Aside from wanting to save that massive energy load, Giancarlo seems right keen to see starlight again. Ah, now ain’t that a joy to behold — a bureaucrat with a sense of the romantic. Bring it on. (See satellite pic below, of global night light spill. It might be pretty for the guys in the International Space Station, but is otherwise a criminal waste of resources.) From the ::Guardian, via Greenleap