On August 22, 630,000 public facilities and buildings will be participating and turn off lights.
On the occasion of the 9th Energy Day, the Seoul city government will conduct the lights-off event across the city.
The Seoul City Government decided to turn off all lights at 630,000 buildings and facilities, including public facilities, for 5 minutes from 21:00 to 21:05 p.m. in the evening of August 22. A part of these buildings and apartment complexes will be urged to switch off lights for 30 minutes in the same evening.
The Seoul city government said on August 20 that it will induce about 630,000 buildings, individual houses and facilities to actively participate in the lights-out campaign in support of nationwide drive organized by Korea NGO’s Energy Network on the occasion of the 9th Energy Day.
Buildings and facilities eligible for the campaign include representative landmark buildings (189), buildings of public organizations, including Seoul City Hall (587), residential facilities including apartments (630,000, based on number of households), and private commercial and office buildings (2,714).
Through the Energy Day event, the city authority plans to help citizens better understand preciousness of energy and deliver a message, urging them to take initiative in energy saving campaign.
In an effort to effectively save energy, the city government urged public organizations and residential facilities (apartments and houses) to turn off lights for 30 minutes in the same evening. At the same time, representative land mark facilities, such as Namsan Tower, COEX building, and 63 City building, as well as large commercial buildings in Seoul will turn off their signboards and outdoor lightings for 5 minutes as long as it will not affect their business activities.
It also urged autonomous boroughs in the city to designate demonstration apartment complexes (lights-off for 30 minutes) and demonstration streets (lights-off for 5 minutes), requiring them to essentially take part in the campaign.
Accordingly, buildings and stores around 25 demonstration streets and roads in Sejojng-ro and 25 demonstration apartment complexes in Jongro-gu, including Muak Hyundai Apartment, will have to turn off outdoor lights for 5 minutes and outdoor and room lights for 30 minutes, respectively. Officials at the Seoul city government and autonomous boroughs will visit these facilities to guide and check lights-off activities.
As part of this drive, the Seoul city government will hold the awards ceremony and exhibition of the environment-related artwork contest on August 22 at 10:00~10:30 a.m. at the Seoul Plaza, and various other programs for citizens, including astronomical observation program in which citizens can meet the ‘legendary Altair and Vega star’ in dark Seoul.
In addition, the city government will install several booths to provide information on the timetable of energy-saving education for energy guardian angel teams, which consist of elementary and middle school students, a method of applying for energy clinic service, and a method of applying for good store that saves energy. It will also guide citizens how to install LED lightings and solar photovoltaic facilities.
In particular, the astronomical observation program will provide citizens with chances of directly observing stars through 30 astronomical telescopes installed at the Plaza, while listening to explanations by members of Korea Astronomy Space Science Institute and Korean Amateur Astronomical Society.
The program is designed to help citizens ‘satisfy five senses’, not simply observe celestial bodies, by listening to explanation on constellations, counting number of stars, and viewing exhibited award-winning pictures of celestial bodies and exhibition of superior astronomical and space science of Korea.
At 20:20 p.m. on the day, the city government will hold at the Plaza a ceremony of declaring energy-saving drive and giving performance of lighting and turning off lights. It will also announce the amount of electric power saved on the day. The ceremony will be attended by the Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, and ministers of Knowledge Economy and Environment.
Director General of Climate and Environment Office Im Ok-gi at the Seoul City government said, “The city government will make an effort to help citizens take part in energy-saving and renewable energy production drive with pleasure. We hope that the campaign on August 22 will provide citizens with valuable chance of actively participating in lights-off event for saving energy, while making memories of counting stars.”
Meanwhile, marking the country recorded largest-ever electric power consumption on August 22, 2003, the Korea NGO’s Energy Network designated August 22 as the Energy Day, and the Seoul City government, Korea NGO’s Energy Network and Ministry of Knowledge Economy have been jointly holding energy-saving events annually since August 22, 2004.
Source:todayenergy
