Public lighting
By reducing the nocturnal lighting of the Eiffel Tower and the capital's municipal buildings, including the emblematic Hôtel de Ville, from the fall, Paris wants to "set an example", justified the mayor Anne Hidalgo, who intends to invest 286 million euros in the renovation of public lighting to make it 60% less energy intensive than a quarter of a century earlier.
Lille, which has stopped lighting public buildings at night, except on the Grand'Place and the Place de l'Opéra, which according to it will allow it to save 170.000 kWh per year, had preceded it in early September.
Marseille has taken a similar measure with the extinction of lights at 23:30 p.m., and at 22:30 p.m. in winter, for its 140 monuments, with Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde as the only exception. The town hall of Toulon wants to achieve the same objective "as quickly as possible".
Since July 2021, the emblematic Vauban citadel of Besançon has no longer been systematically lit at night "to reduce energy consumption, preserve biodiversity and limit light pollution", according to Mayor Anne Vignot.
The same reasons are invoked by the city of Montpellier, which validated and accentuated in April an experiment in the extinction of public lighting on five main roads.
The big cities are not the only ones to turn off the light: thus in New Aquitaine, Libourne, Saint-Sever or the Syndicat Énergies Vienne, which manages the public energy service in 220 rural communes of the department, have decided to s deprive of it at night.
These rationing measures are generally accompanied by the announced replacement of light bulbs with LEDs.
Building temperature
Lille had made an impression by announcing a drop in temperature of 2 degrees - from 20 to 18 - in two museums, an equivalent drop in air and water temperature in municipal swimming pools, or even two hours of heating less at the end of the day in sports halls.
Here too, Paris followed suit by announcing a general drop of one degree in all buildings not receiving a vulnerable public (Ehpad and crèches). The start of heating, now set at 18°C, will be postponed both in the morning, by half an hour, and in the autumn, by a month.
In Lyon, the Métropole has stopped the heating setpoint at 19°C this winter in its heritage to cope with the anticipated doubling (from 55 to 100 million euros) of energy costs in 2023.
The same temperature will apply to the rural municipalities of Vienne, with a bonus/penalty system to reward the most economical municipalities, and to Marseille, which has also set the threshold for air conditioning in summer at 26°C in its local.
In Libourne, Mayor Philippe Buisson has outright decided "to hardly heat the gymnasiums anymore", kept at ... 10 degrees, except for showers and changing rooms.
Closing of swimming pools
Like Lille, the town hall of Toulon has planned to lower the water temperature of its swimming pools by two degrees, from 28°C to 26°C, "except for a swimming pool which welcomes mothers and babies", and is also considering to "punctual" closures of these energy-intensive establishments, for example during school holidays.
If Paris is only considering this option as a "last resort", its neighbor Issy-les-Moulineaux took the plunge this summer, closing the most energy-intensive of its two swimming pools, for which soaring energy prices represents an additional cost of 400.000 euros per year.
Lille also announced that two municipal fountains would not be put back into operation to save water and energy.
Announcements of this type will continue in the coming days, with savings plans expected for example in Toulouse and Grenoble.