Germany funds 10 LED outdoor lighting projects

The 10 winning teams of the German competition “Kommunen in neuem Licht” (“Towns in a New Light”) were announced during a special event on Monday, April 12 at the Light+Building trade fair in Frankfurt, Germany.

The competition will provide funding to introduce LED outdoor lighting in 10 towns around Germany (see map).

Organized by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Association of the German Electrical and Electronic Industry, this competition was supposed to create lighting projects with demonstrative character. The organizers were taken by surprise when the number and quality of proposals exceeded all expectations.

“Municipal authorities have forged strong alliances to make sure the people and the environment will benefit from the new technology,” expressed Thomas Rachel, the parliamentary secretary of state from the federal ministry of education and research. “This emphasizes that the LED, the new light of the 21st century, has found great interest in every day practice.”

Among 141 participating towns from all over Germany, the ten best proposals will be granted up to EUR 2 million sponsorship by the Ministry. The winners were selected carefully by an interdisciplinary jury of experts. Focus was set to key features like sustainability, innovation and the potential to carry LED technology to the people. Choosing the ten most promising proposals turned out to be hard work.

The winning towns and districts in the German municipal lighting competition are (in no particular order): Erfurt, Görlitz, Königsfeld, Wuppertal, Trier, Norden, München, Paderborn, Freiburg (Breisgau), and Rietberg.

The achievements and results of this highly competitive support program are expected within the next 18 months.

A large amount of additional information is available in German – see Related Links.