The municipality of Neubiberg wants to save energy and convert almost all street lighting to LED technology. The investigation of a company has shown that this is economical. The conversion of the approximately 1,367 lights affected would therefore cost around 845,000 euros, with the community being able to count on a subsidy of 70 percent. In return, electricity consumption could be significantly reduced, from the current 310,500 kilowatt hours per year to 97,700. Based on the 2020 electricity price, this would reduce costs from around 68,000 euros to 21,000 euros per year.
The managing director of the company Energievision Franken, Dominik Böhlein, spoke of energy savings of 73 percent at the municipal council meeting. On the whole, the existing masts are to be retained and only the lamp heads are to be replaced. According to Böhlein, another advantage of the LED lights is that insects are not attracted as much and light pollution is reduced.
The municipal councils welcomed the change, but had various wishes and suggestions. For example, Nicola Gehringer (CSU) advocated that the lights should not be too dark, because otherwise you would not feel safe as a young woman. Your party friend Tobias Thalhammer asked whether self-sufficient lights could also be used. Böhlein explained that there are very good photovoltaic-powered variants, but that these only make sense for economic reasons if there is no electricity grid, for example if a cycle path is newly illuminated. Lucia Kott (Greens) suggested making sure that it doesn’t get too bright in the environmental garden, because there are many insects and other animals around. Management accepted the suggestions. In the end, the municipal council can decide for itself what it wants to order.