Dgermany saves: More and more countries, cities and municipalities are turning down their heating, reducing their outdoor lighting or sending their civil servants back to their home offices. This should reduce the consumption of electricity and gas – and relieve the budgets of the cities.
Light only where it is necessary
The city of Augsburg has now largely dispensed with facade lighting. Some wells have also been shut down. Only the three monumental fountains, which are part of the historic Augsburg water management system, which has been declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco, are still running. Together with the police, the municipality also checks which traffic lights can temporarily go out of service.
The capital should also be darker: Berlin’s FDP parliamentary group leader Sebastian Czaja calls for sights to be illuminated more briefly. “We have many security-related objects, such as underpasses, that need to be illuminated at night,” he said. But: “Why does the radio tower still have to be illuminated from below after midnight? Other examples are the Red Town Hall, the Brandenburg Gate, the Victory Column, and the Charlottenburg Town Hall,” says Czaja. Even the Reichstag dome does not have to be illuminated all night. The Berlin Senate has already set up a task force for potential savings.
Less heating and cooling in administration
Many cities and towns are lowering the water temperature in swimming pools. Numerous swimming pools in Germany had to close just before the summer holidays because of the energy crisis. That’s according to research from Business Insider. The reason: the municipal operators can no longer pay the energy costs. The approximately 600 wellness hotels in Germany also see their business model threatened. A lifeguard in the Eifel years ago relied on renewables – and on a heat pump.
There are also proposals to heat less in public buildings in autumn and winter: In Würzburg, for example, there are plans to lower the heating temperatures in administration buildings or to merge departments. Turning down the heating could also be a solution for sports halls, libraries and offices. In Regensburg, it is already being considered which authorities may not have to be open as usual during the Christmas holidays. In addition, city employees are to work more mobile again. Such a step is also being considered in other cities.
Should an emergency arise, plans are being made to convert the MHP Arena into a heated hall in the district of Ludwigsburg within a day. This is intended to help people who cannot afford to quadruple the price of gas.
And the judiciary?
Berlin’s judiciary is examining where savings could be made. “Particular challenges arise for the prison system,” said a spokesman for the Senate Department of Justice at the request of the dpa. There are not only classic administration buildings, but also residential and detention areas as well as sensitive medical departments such as the detention hospital. When planning savings measures, special regulations must be observed in these areas.
No ice rink in Advent
In Rendsburg, Schleswig-Holstein, facts have already been created for the Advent season and the ice rink planned for the Christmas market has been cancelled. The cooling units consumed a lot of electricity, which could then possibly be missing elsewhere, it was said.
