Altendorf relies on innovative lighting
Altendorf has installed intelligent street lighting on a busy cantonal road. It provides light as needed, lowers energy consumption and reduces light pollution. According to its own statements, this means that the municipality is playing a pioneering role throughout Switzerland.
An innovative light control in the municipality of Altendorf measures the number of vehicles and adapts the light to the traffic. It consumes less energy and reduces the light level to the necessary minimum. According to a press release , Altendorf is “the first municipality to show how an intelligent system can be implemented easily and inexpensively”. The canton of Schwyz decided in mid-August to support the communities financially in the retrofitting.
Altendorf began converting to LED lights in 2010. For the renovation phase that has now begun, the municipality decided in favor of the traffic-dependent light control TrafficDim from the company Elektron from Wädenswil ZH. The system "is one of the most efficient lighting controls available on the market," says the press release.
With the traffic data recorded on site, the lights are controlled as required via a light management system, "without any restrictions on safety". The changes are gentle and hardly noticeable. "We didn't want any nervous lighting, no constant ups and downs of the light," Markus Weber, the head of the local civil engineering office, is quoted as saying.
To have around 60 of these lights installed by Elektrizitätsversorgung Altendorf AG ( EVA ) is “the order of the day,” says Erich Keller, councilor for civil engineering and works. “Altendorf wants to become an energy city. This also includes reducing the energy consumption of street lighting to a minimum. ”The lighting on its main traffic axis, a busy cantonal road, consumes around 20 percent of the entire street lighting infrastructure. That is why it offers "the ideal prerequisites for the use of innovative lighting control".
The municipality "Altendorf did everything right when it came to renovating its public lighting", says the smart city expert and CEO of Elektron, Enrico Baumann. “It started converting to LED at an early stage and has continuously taken into account the technological advances over the past ten years. With the use of TrafficDim, it is taking on a pioneering role throughout Switzerland. "