Final Report Lot 9: Public street lighting - Amper

Discussion of results:
For most impact categories, the contribution of the electricity use during the life of the street
lighting luminaire configuration is most substantial. This is clearly shown in figures Figure 26
to Figure 28 where the material-related impacts from production, distribution and end-of-life
waste treatment of lamps, ballast and luminaire are clearly distinguished from the electricity use.
The impacts related to materials become more prominent for lower wattage luminaire
configurations, hence explaining why in category S the impacts are more prominent compared
to M, and even more in category F. Impact categories dominated by electricity use are GER,
water use, non-hazardous waste, GHG, acidification, VOC, POP and HM to air and water.
Impact categories where material aspects contribute largely are hazardous waste (where the
contribution from the luminaire is almost exclusively from polyester housing in the end-of-life
phase), PAH (largely due to aluminium production), PM (due to incineration of the luminaire
polyester housing), Eutrophication (contribution from the production of the luminaire polyester
housing). The relationship from individual indicators to materials can be found in the MEEUP
methodology report (table 29).
Based on these results it can be concluded that the focus should be on energy efficiency in order
to reduce environmental impact.
No normalisation factors are available for EU25 impact totals, so no conclusions can be drawn
regarding the relative importance of each single impact.
When comparing different luminaires with different lamp types, HPM luminaires are worst
case with HPS luminaires having a factor 2,5 to 3 less environmental impacts per functional
lumen output. CMH and CFL luminaires generate obviously the least impacts per functional
lumen output and where appropriate for application, substitution with these types of luminaires
can lead to substantial impact reductions.
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