Over US$400 million in electricity costs would be saved with efficient lighting in Central America.
Countries in Central America have undertaken numerous initiatives, programmes, regulations, communication campaigns and other actions to improve energy efficiency, in general, and lighting efficiency, in particular. Despite these actions to increase lighting efficiency, results have been marginal when compared to the existing savings potential due to a lack of systematic measures being adopted by the countries. Currently, many regulatory frameworks that are applied in the region are based on voluntary technical standards. Other gaps have to do with the high price of energy efficient lighting devices in the market and the low levels of verification and supervision of approved regulations.
Two UNEP projects, REGATTA and en.lighten, in coordination with Proyecto Mesoamerica, supported the development of the Regional Efficient Lighting Strategy for countries in Central America (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama) and the Dominican Republic. UNEP’s work focused on four main areas: (i) Minimum Energy Performance Standards, (ii) Support Mechanisms and Policies, (iii) Monitoring, Verification and Enforcement, and (iv) Environmental Sound Management.
Ministers of Energy from across Central America and Dominican Republic adopted a regional energy efficient lighting strategy. The strategy includes the gradual phase-out of inefficient incandescent lamps in the region by the end of 2016.
Technical regulations will be developed following an integrated policy approach to phase-out inefficient incandescent and halogen lamps. This includes implementing technical standards and environmentally sound management activities, such as collection and recycling. A maximum mercury content limit aligned to the Minamata Convention on Mercury will also be defined.
This is a successful example of South-South Cooperation, as both Mexico and Colombia provided support and shared their experience in the development of their national processes.
The impact of applying the comprehensive transition strategy to efficient lighting, which promotes the substitution of inefficient lighting devices with those of greater efficiency, will be reflected through the following indicators:
- Electricity consumption among consumers will decrease, and as a result, electricity generation and fuel consumption for generation will also decrease.
- The reduction in electricity generation and required fuel consumption will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- The reduction in the demand for electricity among consumers during peak hours will imply a reduction in the maximum electricity demand during peak hours, and as a result, investments in new generation capacity will be avoided.
- The implementation of a collection and recycling system for lighting devices with mercury will avoid negative environmental impacts caused by the inappropriate disposal of those devices. In addition, it will eliminate the impact of fluorescent lights currently in use without any controls on final disposal.
The transition to efficient lighting in Central America will bring potential environmental, social and economic benefits.
According to estimates from national assessments conducted, the environmental and energy benefits of the transition will equal a total of 942.7 kt of CO2 not being released, in addition to 16.9 kg of mercury savings.
On average, with the transition, all countries will decrease their national electricity consumption by 4.8% of the total consumption.
These savings will result from a decrease in energy consumption for lighting by 34%, on average, per country.
These numbers represent energy savings of 2,576 GWh/year of electricity consumption for the region, or $406.5 million.
