Perama: photovoltaic columns in dark neighbourhoods

The Municipality of Perama is proceeding with the modernisation and reinforcement of municipal lighting, aiming to light up even the most isolated points of the town. In cooperation with PPC and DEDDIE, the municipal authority is completing the replacement of the old wooden poles with new concrete ones, while at the same time installing standalone photovoltaic units in neighbourhoods that had remained in the dark. The mayor of Perama, Giannis Lagoudakos, carried out a night-time inspection on Wednesday 19 August 2026 of the areas where the works have been completed, presenting the plan to residents. The choice of a night visit is not a formality: only with daylight gone can it be judged which points are genuinely covered by the new lights and which remain in darkness.

The choice of standalone photovoltaic columns is not only about energy. According to the municipal authority, the municipality procured columns of considerable height in order to limit vandalism, damage and theft, and is installing them at hard-to-reach points, in areas outside the town plan and on pavements with steps, that is where extending the conventional network would be expensive or technically difficult. The new lamp posts have already been installed at Ikariotika, at the playground of Agia Lavra, on the steps at the end of Megalou Alexandrou, Ierolochiton and Panagias Giatrissis streets, as well as at the playground on Papanastasiou Street, for which, according to the municipality, the redevelopment study will shortly go out to tender.

For Perama, a town with a steep relief, extensive areas outside the town plan and a long seafront, lighting is directly linked to residents’ sense of safety. At the town’s end pier two tall photovoltaic columns were installed as a temporary solution, until the major tender for the full replacement of the underground lighting network is completed. The municipal authority places the overall intervention within a broader plan to improve visibility and control crime more effectively, both from land and from the sea. This direction is consistent with an earlier decision of the municipality on night patrols with a private security company and cameras, announced a few days earlier.

The next step concerns the underground network. The two columns on the pier are described explicitly as a temporary solution, which means that the definitive restoration of lighting at that point depends on the progress of the tender, for which no timetable has been announced. The question of maintenance also remains open: standalone light units do not depend on the network, but they require periodic checks of the batteries and the photovoltaic elements, especially in a seaside environment with high humidity and salinity. The effectiveness of the intervention will be judged in practice during the winter months, when the operating hours are longer and solar charging is lower.