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Berlin monuments go dark to save energy

#Berlin #monuments #dark #save #energy

The city of Berlin has begun turning off searchlights illuminating its historic monuments as part of a national effort to conserve energy in the face of Russia’s gas shortages.

Around 200 buildings and landmarks, including the red-brick Berlin City Hall, the State Opera and Charlottenburg Palace, will descend into darkness at night, officials in the German capital said this week.

“In view of the war against Ukraine and Russia’s energy policy threats, it is important that we use our energy as carefully as possible,” said environmental department head Bettina Jarasch on Wednesday.

Jarasch from the Greens said consumers and industry were among them, but also public institutions, and called the darkened monuments “the right thing to do to make a visible contribution”.

The policy initially affected six monuments as of Wednesday night and will eventually cover 200 buildings and landmarks and their 1,400 floodlights over the next four weeks, Jarasch’s office said.

An electrical company will turn off 100-120 lamps per day without dismantling them, temporarily keeping the policy in place.

Therefore, the scarce capital will not save money, as labor costs are expected to match the benefit of reducing energy consumption.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said this week he wanted to set an example by keeping his official residence, Schloss Bellevue in Berlin’s sprawling Tiergarten, dark at night.

Several German cities have announced that they will intensify their efforts to reduce electricity and gas consumption.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s centre-left government has been calling for a national effort to save energy in the face of rising prices as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

German officials have also warned that the Kremlin could halt supplies this winter in retaliation for harsh Western sanctions against Moscow over the war.

Efforts to save energy include reducing the use of air conditioning, encouraging the use of public transport and encouraging the use of more efficient shower heads.

Before the Ukraine war, Germany bought 55 percent of its natural gas from Russia.

Although the rate had fallen to 35 percent by early June, Europe’s leading economy is still heavily dependent on Russia for its energy, which Moscow uses as a “weapon”.

On Wednesday, Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom cut gas supplies through the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany from 40 percent to 20 percent of capacity.

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