Germany says Habek’s idea to save energy is absurd

MOSCOW, 10 Sep — PRIME. The idea of ​​the Minister of Economics, Vice-Chancellor of Germany Robert Habek to turn off neon signs and billboards at night for the sake of economy could result in even greater losses, the Die Welt newspaper said.

According to the new orders of the authorities, the Germans are forbidden to leave neon signs and other luminous advertising on from 22:00 to 16:00, but the implementation of this measure, according to Die Welt’s interlocutors, faces unexpected difficulties for many.

For example, the managing director of the German Outdoor Advertising Association, Kai-Markus Tesler, notes that these advertising media “up to now have been equipped with an automatic twilight function”, but now this “twilight control must be replaced by an electrician with a timer in each individual area.”

At the same time, it is indicated that many lamps performed not only advertising functions, but also heated signs and billboards, thereby preventing them from freezing in winter. And since they can no longer be heated, the owners of luminous advertising structures will be forced to install special heaters that consume more energy than the lamps themselves. Otherwise, signs may be irreversibly damaged, and entrepreneurs will suffer losses.

All this makes the new measure absurd, the publication claims, and at the same time mentions that turning off neon structures will hurt advertisers.

These theses led the head of the German Outdoor Advertising Association to the following conclusion: “It is already clear that the costs of the described technical transformation of advertising media, both in terms of energy consumption and in terms of the necessary investments, will far exceed the savings that can be achieved.”