Roughly one third of the streetlights in Germany is at least 20 years old-and is often consuming more energy than necessary. The Federal Ministry for Environment (BMU), the KfW Bankengruppe and the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) have therefore launched the national energy efficiency award contest for city lighting (Energieeffiziente Stadtbeleuchtung) contest today. UBA President Prof. Dr. Troge commented, ”We should soon replace old street lanterns as it would achieve a reduction of an annual emissions volume of some one million tonnes of carbon dioxide. Municipalities could also save a lot of money”. Lighting for streets, squares, and bridges in Germany consumes about three to four billion kilowatt hours per year, equivalent to the power use of some 1.2 million households. This incurs more than two million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions annually. At present, municipalities are replacing street lighting at an annual rate of merely three percent. The contest aims to provide incentives to modernise more rapidly.