Over the past years, Malta has strived to diversify its electricity generation and electrical supply thereby reducing its carbon footprint. Today Malta’s main power production plant runs on natural gas, and  the interconnector with Sicily has provided an alternative which reduces dependency on fossil fuels. Moreover, numerous incentives were given to households and businesses to invest in renewable sources of energy, such as photovoltaic panels.

In order to achieve such targets, investing in generating energy through alternative sources however would not be enough unless carried out in parallel with a plan to improve efficiency in the way energy is used. One of the most conspicuous projects targeted towards achieving this objective is the retrofitting of road and street lighting by Smart Lighting, a project which seeks to reduce energy consumption by approximately 1,600MWh annually and greenhouse gas emissions by about 610 tonnes.

The project involved innovative actions that sought to transform street lighting through a modern, efficient system. Through the first element of the project, more than 3,000 street lamps in arterial and distributor roads are being retrofitted with LEDs.

In parallel, a new smart lighting management system was to be implemented. Lighting management is important, since inappropriate lighting ,  leads to waste of energy and contributes to climate change by increased carbon emissions in the atmosphere.

This EU-funded project, which was designed in 2017, will however fit in perfectly with the European’s Green Deal, an ambitious action plan to boost the efficient use of resources by moving to a clean, circular economy and to restore biodiversity and cut pollution.