There is something majestic about the Imperial Castle towering over Nuremberg’s old town at night, brightly lit. Mind you: if. This hasn’t always been the case recently. After nine months of darkness, the castle has been shining again since April of this year, as are all the monuments and sights in the city that have not been illuminated to save energy. So are the times of thrift in Bavaria over? Not quite.
In Middle Franconia’s district capital Ansbach, for example, the ban on “staging building illumination at night” will continue. In addition, street lights would be switched off in more areas – with the exception of “traffic-important streets and central locations” – between 11.30 p.m. and 4.30 a.m., including in the city center. “We hope that this will result in savings of over a third compared to the current amounts of electricity used for street lighting,” said a spokesman.
In Bayreuth, all public buildings except schools and kindergartens are subject to the requirement that the room temperature not exceed 19 degrees – in the two town halls, hallways and stairwells are no longer heated, according to a city spokesman. Sights such as the Bayreuth Festival Hall would be illuminated for a shorter time.
In Würzburg, they used the energy crisis resulting from Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine as an opportunity to create a “renovation roadmap” for municipal buildings with the support of an external company. According to a city spokesman, energy-saving LED lighting is already being gradually switched to – including at the Christmas market. Patio heaters are prohibited here.
They also use LED lighting elsewhere, for example in Nuremberg, where, according to the city, the Christmas market has been powered by green electricity for ten years. With the switch to LED, power consumption has been “significantly reduced in recent years”. The city has also reduced energy consumption in its swimming pools through lower water temperatures and closed outdoor areas.
Where energy-saving technology is used, the savings were “rather small”
Like the castle in Nuremberg, the monuments in Bamberg are shining again. Because street lighting and lighting in buildings has already been “almost completely converted to energy-saving technology,” the “savings effects of measures taken in 2022 were rather small,” said a spokesman. Switching off the lighting was primarily about “sending a clear signal together and thus encouraging the population to use electricity and heat prudently.” In the future, energy-saving renovations and central heating controls should save energy.
There are no longer any austerity measures in Aschaffenburg, although the city administration is currently “monitoring the situation”. Last year, around 1.6 million kilowatt hours of heat energy and around 300,000 kilowatt hours of electricity were saved through specifications for city-owned properties. The latter roughly corresponds to the consumption of 86 two-person households (As of 2021). At the Christmas market, the city relies on personal responsibility: the suppliers bear the electricity costs themselves and have therefore voluntarily taken savings measures such as switching to LED lighting.
Lots of lights make Christmas markets cozy. Many cities are now using LED lighting to use as little electricity as possible.
(Photo: Manfred Neubauer)
The same applies to the Kempten Christmas market: LED lighting is desired; according to the city, there are no specific regulations – but they have generally been converting to energy-saving lighting for some time, and all Christmas trees are equipped with LEDs. Last year, there was no hot water from the taps in the toilets in administrative buildings as an energy-saving measure. This will continue in some buildings. In addition, the population and administrative employees are still called upon to turn up the heating less.
The city of Augsburg is continuing only a few of the energy saving measures introduced in 2022, such as the shortened running time of the wells. “We currently see no need for any further austerity measures,” says a spokesman for the economic department. In order to protect the climate, the city wants to implement effective heating management in municipal buildings and convert street lighting to LED. The stands at the Christmas market must also use LED light bulbs.
The Upper Bavarian city says there are currently no requirements for the operators of the Christmas market in Rosenheim. Here too, most of the lighting is LED. Because this saves energy, last year the lighting remained on from dusk until an hour after the Christmas market ended. That should be the case this year too. Other savings measures from last year no longer apply, although employees are being trained to save energy.
Switching off hot water in public buildings is also hardly worth it
In Regensburg they are continuing some measures from the austerity winter of 2022, but are abandoning others. For example, because they only have a small savings effect, like switching off hot water in public buildings. Since the beginning of November, historical buildings such as the cathedral have been illuminated again and you no longer need a sweater in offices and gyms in the city, the room temperature has been raised. The city is continuing other measures. Among other things, the water temperature in the pools will remain lower, traffic lights and street lighting will be converted to LED, and energy efficiency will be taken into account in urban construction projects.
The savings measures were worth it, according to the town hall. Compared to the consumption of the heating period 2017 to 2019, eight percent of kilowatt hours of energy were saved in 2022/2023, which is over 443,000 euros less heating costs and almost 430 tons less CO₂. Switching off the object lighting resulted in savings of 3,300 euros by the turn of the year 2022/2023. Incidentally, the lighting at the city’s Christmas markets was switched to LED a few years ago.
Ingolstadt is also pursuing various measures to save energy. In addition to LED lighting at Christmas markets, this includes supplying the pools with district heating. The fact that the city is paying greater attention to the issue of energy saving is due, on the one hand, to the tense budget situation and, on the other hand, to the goal of climate neutrality by 2030 set by the city council. According to the city, as elsewhere, one measure that is already underway is the conversion to LED street lighting. In a comparison between 2016 and 2022, energy consumption was reduced by around 25 percent. In addition, there would be annual savings of 34,000 kilowatts per hour (kwH) and 15 tons of carbon dioxide by converting the lighting at both district sports facilities. In addition to a planned modernization of heating system technology, as many roofs as possible should be equipped with photovoltaic systems.