Aug 6, 2015

Case Study: In Milan, Sustainable Lighting is for Life

Category: Illumination

This year, Milan, Italy is hosting some 20 million visitors from 150 countries for the world’s fair, Milan Expo 2015. In keeping with the Expo’s theme “Feed the Planet, Energy for Life,” the city decided to undertake a complete urban renovation without parallel in Europe, such as by creating a breath-taking skyline, new cycle paths, subway tunnels and an efficient lighting system—specifically by, replacing 100,000 HID lamps with sustainable LED luminaires.

City officials set the goals for the Milan project, to become a 100% smart city using modern technologies to enhance performance and well-being, to reduce costs and resource consumption, and to engage more effectively and actively with the citizens. Naturally, energy efficiency, eco-sustainability, and reliability were key requirements for the project “Milan goes LED.” Environmental considerations were also a priority, and so the project needed to be fulfilled by eco-sustainable LED luminaires. City officials also targeted a reduction in waste generation and minimization of light pollution created by the city.

The project covered highway lighting, residential roadway lighting, and lighting over city centers, squares and parks. Because of the varied requirements, fixtures of different designs with various optical capabilities were indicated.