Taiwan Switches On 5-year Green Plan to Ban Incandescent Lights

In five years beginning 2008, incandescent lamps, long known as a highly-inefficient light source and one of the major culprits behind global warming, will completely disappear from the Taiwan lighting market, according to a green plan recently announced by the local administration.

Such policy makes Taiwan another developed economy, after Australia, California and Canada, to take substantial steps to do away with the energy-guzzling bulbs totally.

Bureau of Energy (BOE) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), the engineer behind the plan, estimates that 800 million kilowatt /hours of electricity and 500,000 metric tons of CO2 emission can be cut a year in Taiwan when incandescent bulbs are banned on the island.

"This amount of emission equals the CO2 absorbed by the vegetation in 1,342 Da An Parks or 27.84 million trees," stresses bureau chief H.C. Yeh. Da An Park is in an upscale neighborhood in Taipei and a centerpiece of the city where large green spaces are rare, as well as being one of the largest parks in Taiwan at nearly 26 hectares.

Incandescent lamps, as in many emerging nations, burn up sizable electricity in Taiwan, consuming around 1.08 billion kilowatt/hours a year with some 22.18 million bulbs. The worst aspect is that incandescent bulbs have very low luminous efficacy: turning some 90% of watts into heat rather than visible light. The BOE studies show, however, that such bulbs are used almost everywhere, from residences and hospitals to hotels, restaurants and greenhouses.

Cheaper But Hotter

Yeh sheds direct light on the question "how inefficient are incandescent lamps": incandescent lamps last on average between 500 to 1,000 hours and are five-times less energy-efficient than fluorescent counterparts, or burning five-times the power to emit the same illumination intensity. Despite lasting on average six times as long as incandescent lamps, fluorescent lights typically retail five times as much. "Worst of all, incandescent lamps, due to energy-inefficiency, heat up ambient temperatures that tend to cause users to turn up air-conditioners, resulting in even more electrical usage," Yeh stresses.

The government will gradually phase out incandescent bulbs to realize its five-year plan. By the end of 2008, the MOEA will first publicize guidelines for bulb suppliers, with details such as efficiency standards for lamps and a three-year grace period, after which all suppliers are banned from manufacture, import and distribution of incandescent lamps.

Yeh says that his organization has convinced the island's four major incandescent manufacturers, who depend on such lamps for some NT$100 million (US$3.3 million at US$1:NT$30) in annual revenues, to stop producing the lamps in five years. "They are very willing to comply with official policies and have decided to switch to energy-saving lamps," he says.

Beginning in 2009, all of the 7,890 government offices and schools on the island will stop using incandescent bulbs as part of the five-year plan; meanwhile they will start using energy-saving compact fluorescent lamps, LED lamps and T5 fluorescent tubes. Plus all government-owned marketplaces are required to replace energy-saving lamps with incandescent ones now in use by the end of 2009. Moreover, Yeh's bureau will work with the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture to promote saving electricity in that field.

Inspiring Private Users

In addition, the BOE will try to cross over into the private sector by inspiring hospitals, hotels, restaurants and farming concerns to support its energy-saving program. For example, the BOE will work with lighting suppliers to offer more affordable green lamps to foster greater usage of such lamps.

Taiwanese industry watchers estimate the incandescent ban will give a big boost to various energy-conservative lamps, with LED lamps catching most of the favors. The energy bureau plans to budget NT$130 million (US$4.3 million) for some 4,000 LED lamps as giveaways for local governments. "Taiwan will be able to save up to 41% of electricity consumed by lighting products once all incandescent lamps throughout the island are replaced by LED lamps," Yeh estimates.

The BOE will continue in 2009 to rid of incandescent lights in infrastructural applications, replacing the remaining 400,000 incandescent-type traffic lights, architectural lights, landscape lights and mercury street lighting along side roads with LED ones. When such lights are replaced by LED ones as planned by 2025, Taiwan will save up to 3.78 billion kilowatt/hours annually.

More LED Lights

Some industry watchers in Taiwan believe banning incandescent lights would lead to greater use of LED lamps on the island next year; while market-researcher Topology Research Institute of Taiwan places LED atop the 10 hot sectors it forecasts for next year in Taiwan, as well as touting LED to lead the second lighting revolution.

The above prediction has tucked the strings of optimism of industry insiders like LED-lighting maker Alliance Optotek Corp. (AOC) "We plan to introduce 100 lumen-watt white LED lamps next year," says F.C. Peng, vice president for marketing at AOC. "Such advance is pushing technological development in the sector forward two to five years faster than expected," he continues. AOC is an LED-lighting joint venture of China Electrical Mfg. Co., Ltd., United Microelectronics Corp. and China Steel Corp. of Taiwan, which has begun to work with Osram.

A bright outlook however usually is spotted with blemishes: for a long time, cost has been the key disadvantage of LED lights for Taiwan consumers, according to AOC's marketing executives. So the company's LED lamps are mostly delivered to Europe, the United States and Japan, areas of less cost-sensitivity. "In Taiwan LED lamps are not as readily available at retailers or even specialty stores, with only eco-conscious lighting designers being major promoters," says M.S. Wu, an AOC marketing manager.

Lacking globally-accepted industrial standards for LEDs is another obstacle to greater acceptance and credibility, which breeds consumer suspicion. Without global standards, underselling makers usually adopt inferior components that compromise quality.

Already a Heavyweight

Taiwan already tells an encouraging story in terms of LED manufacturing capacity: the deputy general director of the Energy & Resource Laboratories of the government-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Y.C. Hu, says that Taiwan now has over 200 LED manufacturers, generating as much as NT$21 billion (US$700 million at US$1:NT$30) in annual revenues. "Taiwan is already the world-leading supplier of LED lights and its LED-derived revenue will likely surge to NT$93 billion (US$3.1 billion) by 2010 for a global share of 14%, and NT$540 billion (US$18 billion) for a 23% by 2015," he estimates.