Plas y Brenin Joins Dark Skies to Combat Light Pollution

The eagle-eyed among you may have spotted Plas y Brenin featured on BBC’s Countryfile earlier this month promoting the completion of our Dark Skies renovation.

Watch the feature here on iPlayer by skipping to 48 minutes 35 seconds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0014jgc/countryfile-snowdonia

The project, a collaboration between PyB, Snowdonia National Park Authority (SNPA), Prosiect Nos and Dark Source (Lighting Design) involved the installation of a new environmentally friendly lighting scheme, designed to halve our energy consumption whilst minimising light pollution and impact on biodiversity.

Lighting accounts for almost 6% of the global CO2 emissions and 20% of the electricity used worldwide. Besides obscuring the view of the night sky, inefficient lighting wastes more than £1bn a year in the UK alone. The switch is expected to generate an annual power saving of 6,000kW and an annual carbon reduction of 1.5 Tonnes of CO2e.

Light pollution also has drastic effects on the environment and well-being of all humans, animals and plants. It alters our perception of the night and blocks our access to our oldest heritage, the stars.

Now complete, the aim of the project uses the latest LED technology to create warm-coloured, glare-free lighting in order to meet dark-sky friendly measures, reduce energy waste and impact on biodiversity whilst enhancing the night-time experience. Many of the new lights can be found underneath handrails, facing downwards so the view of the sky is unaffected.

Over time, we hope it means we’ll see more flora and fauna around the centre – as well as avid star gazers!