Romanian city gets EUR 11 mln EBRD loan to switch to LED lighting

The municipality of Bacau, a city Romania’s North-East region, will get a EUR 11 million loan from the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Green Energy Special Fund (GESF) to modernize street lighting. Some EUR 6 mln will come from EBRD and the remaining EUR 5 mln from GESF. The investment plan includes the installation of LED technology on 60 streets in priority areas of the city center, covering up to 40 kilometers. The new lights will make the areas safer and cut energy usage and CO2 emissions by 50%. The project will replace mercury bulbs with energy efficient LED lights, upgrade old lighting poles and develop an underground network of cables, allowing old aerial cables to be removed. The introduction of more efficient lighting will also benefit the city economically. It is expected that the new lamps will halve the current lighting electricity costs, as well as reduce maintenance and operational costs by more than a quarter. Bacau is a medium-sized city in Romania with a population of almost 200,000. editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: EBRD)