Beja LED retrofit programme

The city of Beja in the Alentejo region is steeped in history, dating back to Roman times, with narrow cobbled streets and historic monuments. The city has a vibrant cultural scene that comes alive with festivals, concerts and lively street parades.
 

A city that embraces active reuse

The local authorities are committed to preserving the city’s heritage while building a sustainable and bright future. They carefully restore and adapt the city’s infrastructure to celebrate the distinctive historical and cultural features that make it special. When the traditional wrought-iron lanterns dating from the 1960s that light the cobbled streets and squares were no longer providing the required lighting levels, the city wanted to preserve them while improving their performance and functionality.
 

Schréder, the lighting retrofit partner 

With many years of experience helping cities throughout Europe to upgrade their lighting by incorporating new LED technology, the city of Beja commissioned us to retrofit the lanterns and restore the brackets and columns which were in poor condition. Our Schréder STUDIO team took up this challenge to deliver a sustainable lighting solution with enthusiasm.

The brackets and columns had to remain as true to the original architecture as possible and meet 21st century standards. We restored and repainted 174 brackets and 16 columns on site to minimise disruption as much as possible for the local community.

We dismantled the lanterns in small groups at a time to avoid any blackouts in the city and transported them to our factory where we removed the old discharge lamps and integrated the latest LED technology.
 

Retrofitted lanterns with 61% energy savings

A total of 189 lanterns were retrofitted. The larger lanterns equipped with 150W high-pressure sodium lamps were upgraded with 70W LEDs and the smaller lanterns equipped with 100W high-pressure sodium lamps were upgraded with 50W LEDs. The retrofitted lanterns have generated an impressive 61% reduction in energy consumption and costs.
 

A safer and more welcoming nocturnal ambiance

All of the lanterns have been fitted with warm white LEDs (3,000K), creating a safe and welcoming nighttime ambiance that encourages people to spend more time outdoors admiring the landmarks or enjoying a cool drink on the city’s terraces.

The local authorities are delighted with the new retrofitted lanterns which preserve the city’s historic aesthetic while saving resources, money and carbon. This project demonstrates that retrofitting luminaires can create safe, attractive and incredibly sustainable public spaces.