The City Hall and the Eiffel Tower plunged earlier into darkness: nicknamed the “City of Light”, Paris will be a little less so, as of September 23, with an advanced extinction of the lighting of municipal buildings, due to the soaring costs of energy.
Ornamental lighting planed, temperature of buildings and swimming pools lowered: after Lille and Marseille, which have already announced similar measures, and before Bordeaux, Toulouse and Lyon, the capital wants to “set an example” with a decrease in its energy consumption of 10%, which is “the objective requested at the national level”, announced the mayor PS Anne Hidalgo at a press conference.
To these first measures, which should make it possible to achieve “in the coming weeks” about 60 gigawatt hours of savings, or 80% of the desired objective, will be added others “before the winter”, said the mayor in a summary.
Energy prices have soared in recent months, against the backdrop of tensions related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and in many countries, individuals, companies and public bodies are seeking to reduce their consumption.
For Paris, a city with a budget of 8 billion euros that used to pay 54 million euros for its annual gas and electricity, this situation entails a potential additional cost of 35 million euros, said Ms. Hidalgo.
One degree less at the pool
From the first day of autumn, September 23, Parisians and tourists will notice the difference with the end of the lighting of the facades of municipal buildings from 22H00 (20H00 GMT). The emblematic City Hall, plunged until now in the dark at 1:00 am (23:00 GMT), the borough halls, the fourteen municipal museums (Petit Palais, Carnavalet), the Saint-Jacques tower …
Also in the hands of the City, the Eiffel Tower will now be turned off when the last visitor leaves, at 11:45 pm (21:45 GMT), instead of 1:00 am previously. Mrs. Hidalgo will ask the State to “do the same” for national monuments, and private owners to take measures “to go in the same direction”.
The ex-candidate of the PS in the presidential election has however ruled out the end of street lighting for reasons of “security”. Bridges and churches will not be affected either.
Not surprisingly, the City will also lower the temperature in its buildings by one degree, including the water in its 40-plus pools. From 19°C, the thermometer will drop to 18°C in the buildings during the day, and to 12°C when they are unoccupied in the evening and on weekends. This application will not concern the places receiving the vulnerable public, as the Establishments of accommodation for dependent old people (Ehpad) and the nurseries, and it will be “progressive, according to the quality of the building”, underlines the city hall.
The City will also double the time it takes to heat its administrative buildings: both in the morning, “by 30 minutes”, and from October to November “to get closer to the winter period”, Mrs. Hidalgo also announced.
Private sector to follow
The mayor, in office since 2014, recalled the investment made since “ten billion euros for the ecological transition”, including one billion in the thermal renovation of buildings.
While private condominiums account for 40% of Parisian consumption, against 4% for municipal services, the deputy (EELV) to the ecological transition Dan Lert recalled the means allocated to “triple, compared to the former mandate, the number of private housing renovated by the end of the mandate” in 2026. The city council wants to reach 40,000 renovated homes per year by 2030.
As for social housing, nearly 60,000 of them have already been renovated, for an average energy gain of 54%, representing an annual saving of 400 euros per family, according to the city council.
Faced with this crisis and global warming, “we must accelerate the energy transition”, insisted Anne Hidalgo who asks the mobilization of all actors, “private as public”, and will ask the large consumers of the capital (office buildings, hotels, supermarkets, department stores, etc. …) to also reduce their consumption of at least 10%.
