energy efficiency

The purpose of this regulation is to establish the technical conditions for design, execution, and maintenance that outdoor lighting installations must meet, in order to: improve energy efficiency and savings, as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions; limit nighttime light glare or light pollution and reduce intrusive or disturbing light.

Section §21 regulates lighting systems, advertising systems, and sky spotlights with a focus on protecting insect fauna and preventing light pollution in outdoor areas. Key provisions include restrictions on illuminating building facades during specific hours, requirements for insect-friendly lighting on public streets, paths, and squares, and a ban on outdoor advertising systems. Exceptions are granted for specific cases, such as advertising at events, signposts, and certain agricultural advertising systems, subject to approval from the nature conservation authority. The highest nature conservation authority is empowered to establish detailed regulations regarding the impact of outdoor lighting systems on wildlife and the permissibility of illuminated advertising systems in outdoor areas.

Article 9. Avoidable light emissions: After 11 p.m. and until dawn, it is prohibited to illuminate the facades of public buildings unless this is necessary for reasons of public safety or prescribed by or on the basis of legal regulations. Illuminated or light-emitting advertising systems are prohibited in outdoor areas. The municipality can allow exceptions to sentence 1 until 11 p.m. at the latest. Restaurants and commercial establishments that are permissibly established at the site of the service, provided that there is a significant need for this in consideration of the requirement to avoid emissions.

Subject: ban on all illuminated or digital advertising, in the event of a threat to the security of electricity supply.

This Decree applies to lighting installations in non-residential buildings, covering both interior lighting emitted towards the exterior of these buildings and the illumination of building facades, excluding lighting installations intended to ensure the protection of property when they are controlled by movement or intrusion detection devices. Introduced several measures, including curfews.

The decree aims to protect the living environment by limiting outdoor advertising while allowing the use of new means. The act reduces the formats of wall advertising devices, depending on the size of the towns, up to four square meters in towns with less than 10,000 inhabitants. It establishes a density rule for classic devices sealed on the ground and wall along roads open to public traffic, by limiting one advertising device per 80 meter strip on private property and another on public property. It specifies the special and derogatory rules applicable in airports and train stations, in order to take into account their specificity in terms of size and operation, in particular for larger airports. It establishes an obligation to turn off light devices: light advertisements must be turned off at night, between one a.m. and six a.m., except for airports and urban units with more than 800,000 inhabitants, for which mayors will issue the applicable rules. Illuminated signs will follow the same rules. Illuminated advertisements, particularly digital ones, are specifically regulated with regard to their surface area, their luminance, their energy consumption and their anti-glare device. Advertising on tarpaulins is specifically regulated. Construction site tarpaulins may include advertising on half of their surface. Advertising banners must respect a density rule. Local advertising regulations, municipal adaptations of national rules, can henceforth only be more restrictive than the national rule. They will be developed, revised and modified according to the rules applicable to local urban planning plans.

The decree defines the lighting installations and the equipment of which they can be constituted concerned by the regulations. It specifies the conditions under which its requirements can be adapted to the characteristics of the areas where these installations are located. It gives competence to the minister responsible for the environment and the prefect to prohibit or limit the operation over time of certain lighting installations. Finally, it gives the competent authority the possibility of sanctioning infractions of the regulations with an administrative fine. Provide several approaches to light pollution mitigation according to various types of lighting installations.

This Ordinance prescribes the content, format and method of delivery of the lighting plan (hereinafter: the Plan) and the action plan for the construction and/or reconstruction of outdoor lighting (hereinafter: the Action Plan), the method of informing the public about the Plans and Action Plans, the method of submitting data for the needs of the environmental and nature protection information system, as well as other related issues.

This Ordinance prescribes the method of measuring environmental illuminance, the content and method of creating a report on the measurement performed, and the method of measurement to determine the level of illuminance.

This Regulation provides for mandatory methods and conditions of enlightenment control; determines lighting zones and protection zones (classification, see Annex), maximum permissible lighting values, conditions for selection and installation of lamps, energy efficiency criteria, conditions and maximum permissible values of correlated color temperature of light sources, obligations of local self-government units, in relation to prescribed standards. This text is divided into four Chapters as follows: I. General provisions; II. Environmental enlightenment management standards; III. Ways and conditions of enlightenment management; IV. Final provisions.