LED Lighting Could Save $1.8 Trillion over 10 Years

Replacing traditional incandescent and fluorescent bulbs with solid-state lighting (using LEDs) will enable enormous savings in cost, natural resources and pollution, according to a study ‘Transcending the replacement paradigm of solid-state lighting’ by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, USA (Optics Express, Vol 16, Issue 26, p21835).

Simple replacement results in energy efficiency improvements of 20 times compared to conventional incandescent bulbs and five times compared to compact fluorescent bulbs. Over a period of 10 years, the consequent global savings of $1.83 trillion would cut crude oil consumption by 962 million barrels and reduce the number of power plants needed by 280, eliminating 10.68 gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions, reckon co-authors Jong Kyu Kim (research assistant professor of electrical, computer, and systems engineering) and E. Fred Schubert (the Wellfleet Senior Constellation professor of Future Chips and head of RPI’s Smart Lighting Engineering Resource Center).

“Deployed on a large scale, LEDs have the potential to tremendously reduce pollution, save energy, save financial resources,” the researchers say. The technology presents a solution to many current global challenges, which will be yet more serious in the years to come, they add.

However, it is important not to pigeonhole or dismiss smart lighting technology as a mere replacement for conventional light bulbs, say Schubert and Kim. LED technology is starting as a simple replacement but, beyond that, it will evolve into integrated lighting systems with functions as diverse as transistors have provided for ICs, promising new applications, they add. “Transcending the replacement paradigm will open up a new chapter in photonics: smart lighting sources that are controllable, tunable, intelligent, and communicative.” 

After receiving an $18.5m five-year award in October from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Generation Three Engineering Research Center Program, the Smart Lighting Engineering Resource Center, together with Boston University and the University of New Mexico, aims to develop novel optical materials, device technologies, and system applications for smart lighting technologies.

“Besides replacement, there are also new capabilities possible in this lighting revolution,” Kim adds. The three top candidates being developed by RPI are: control of the light spectrum for medical applications, control of temporal modulation for wireless optical networking, and control of the polarization of light for improved display technologies.

Spectrum control can enable lighting to change color during the day, positively influence the mood of workers, as well as curing some medical problems that are caused today by poor lighting conditions.

Modulating LEDs at rates too fast to see will enable light fixtures to also serve as wireless access points that directly link different data streams to individual devices, instead of forcing all devices to share the same channel like RF-based wireless technologies do currently.

Controlling the polarization of the light coming from LEDs can enable liquid-crystal displays to eliminate the passive polarization filters that they currently use, greatly increasing the brightness of displays while simultaneously lowering the amount of power they consume.

Other possible smart lighting applications include rapid biological cell identification, interactive roadways, boosting plant growth, and better supporting human circadian rhythms to reduce an individual’s dependency on sleep-inducing drugs or to reduce the risk of certain types of cancer, conclude the researchers.