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Who better than us, The Light Bringers, can shed light on a project that seemed left in the shadows? Who better than us could turn on the (green-only!) spotlights on the technological improvement plan for the public lighting of the city of Marsala?
The field investigation, we started our project second step with, aims to promote the reformist demands of an Enlightenment 2.0, awakening, through the light of "progress", the minds of those who, firmly clinging to a obscurantist and resistant mental habit, still stubbornly refuse to opt for choices based on energy efficiency and sustainability. From multiple sources, including the 2030 Agenda, the Next Generation EU Program, and the directly related PNRR, just to mention some reliable sources (see dynamic infographic), it has been repeated that energy-saving virtuous practices can lead to a significant improvement in life’s quality.
The intervention we are "shedding light on", that involves the replacement of 5.543 of the 16.038 existing street lamps, the modernization of 181 electrical panels and the installation of 2 electric car charging columns, is financed with resources from the Po-Fesr Sicily 2014-2020.
The cost amounts to a total of € 5.000.000,00, which are funded as follows: 3.332.07 European Union; 834.116 Municipality; 833.177 other public source. The project, approved on 07/12/2018, was supposed to start on 07/01/2020 and end on 30/06/2022, but in reality it started on 23/08/2021 and the end, according to the designer, surveyor Gaspare Zichittella, the sole responsible of the procedure, surveyor Girolamo Parrinello, and the engineer Alessandro Putaggio, representative of the Strategic Control Office of the City of Marsala, is expected for June 2023. The metaphor of the sudden lighting of a light in a dark area will be our method of work, professional attitude, and team responsibility!
In this phase, our research has taken on the characteristics of a journalistic inquiry: in a first step, we carried on field interviews and developed a survey that we administered through social channels to our fellow citizens; in a second step, we spoke with the experts involved, who provided us with the data necessary for our monitoring. With patient effort, we shed light on aspects that have remained in the shadows until now.
The questionnaire was answered by 229 people of various ages and with different levels of education, 73,36% of whom were not aware of the energy efficiency intervention. For the majority of Marsala residents (97.3%), "relamping" is necessary for our city: in particular, 24,4% of those interviewed fully agree with the ongoing intervention, 23,1% are very much in agreement, 38,2% say they agree; 60,2% of those interviewed say that the streets in the neighborhood where they live or work are not well lit, while 84,9% do not feel safe from accidents in the absence of adequate lighting. Similarly, 81,4% do not feel safe from criminals. Finally, 44,2% absolutely agree in stating that Marsala can one day be considered among the smart cities of the future.
We strongly believe that our city could become one day a smart city supported by our proactive force, by smart citizens like us, who, taking part to the community life actively and with awareness, are engaged to solve the problems of our city.
The answers given by the ruling people involved in the project are in line with our aims, scaffold our thesis and data provided by the survey. From a careful analysis of data related to the energy bills’consumption and costs referring to one of the electrical panels interested in the intervention and to the period of September 2020 (pre-efficiency) and September 2022 (post-efficiency) it can be deduced a remarkable reduction of consumption: KWh 2.062 VS 1.317, with an energy saving of KWh 745. However to this energy saving it doesn’t correspond reduction of costs that seem like doubled due to the energetic crisis and fixed rates in the bill. Nevertheless these figures, without the efficiency intervention, would have been more worrying.
There are several reflections that have arisen from our investigation and with them, just as many questions, which we all answer unanimously: we, the Light Bringers, are eager to enlighten the virtuous path of technological efficiency, so that the ultimate goal of environmental sustainability is not seen as an utopian goal, but as a concretely achievable path.
It would be wonderful if this project led to a reduction in light pollution and we could see the starry sky again! Let us not forget that UNESCO, during the Paris congress in June 1992, declared the starry sky as heritage of humanity to be protected for future generations (see dynamic infographic). Who knows, maybe one day, as Dante, the supreme poet, said, “we will come forth to see the stars”!
