Interreg Europe funded CLEAN project partner the Municipality of Iași (Romania) will improve the efficiency and distribution of public lighting in order to ensure traffic safety, visual comfort, energy saving and reduced light pollution.

Iași is the largest city in North-East region of Romania. It is one of the most important urban centres in the country and one of the seven growth poles at national level. After the capital Bucharest, Iași is the second largest city of Romania. Like in many other East European countries, public institutions suffer from a lack of appropriate modernisation and need important investment in sustainable systems for energy efficiency and renovations.

Through the action outlined, the Municipality of Iași will modernize and optimize public lighting within the city to ensure traffic safety, visual comfort, energy saving and reduced light pollution. This will be achieved by modernization and remote management of ignition points, including LED retrofit and installation of 41 autonomous photovoltaic systems. This will result in modernization of approximately 75.2 km of the public lighting system including all major and significant arteries in Iași City. All citizens will be beneficiaries of the modernized lighting system, including those who reside temporarily, reside permanently or transit through the city.

During the CLEAN project implementation, the Municipality of Iași had the opportunity to learn about good practices in the field that were developed by the Regional Council of North Karelia (Finland), Smart Led streetlights of Penttilänranta where the lights have been replaced with dimmable options equipped with motion sensors; and by ERNACT’s Street Lighting Retrofit with LED where existing high-maintenance street lights were retrofitted with LED alternatives.

The Municipality of Iași expect to reduce pollution by reducing greenhouse gases associated with electricity consumption, from 1,687.03 tonnes CO2 equivalent to 515.57 tonnes CO2 equivalent. This addresses key project objectives, and also National/European policies & strategies on improvement of energy efficiency and reduction of pollutant emissions.

Through the implementation and visibility of the project, Iași will also encourage other communities to start investments in the direction of modernizing or improving public lighting systems.