Street Lighting Projects Brighten LED Lighting Industry Future

Many insiders say energy-efficient LED (light-emitting diode) lighting is the next wave in lighting of the future, with the potential to replace even compact fluorescent lights that are already energy-stingy. However LED lights currently are still held back by technological hurdles as cooling, relatively low luminosity and color rendering issues; while affordability is another problem. For example, a LED desk lamp with a dimmer switch, sufficient brightness and an upscale aluminum stand retails for about US$126 in Taipei, but a brighter CFL counterpart is only about US$30. As such, LED lighting for now remains more suitable for commercial and public works applications.

Realizing such prospect, countries like the Netherlands, Britain, the United States, Canada, among others, have been implementing national LED street-lighting programs since 2003, aiming to drive demand for LED lighting. Also China and Taiwan this year have both announced several similar plans that are expected to further develop LED lighting in Asia.

50 Cities, 2 Million LED Lights

With rapid urbanization in China exasperating the emerging super power's output of carbon, China has, besides installing more street lighting as the nation further modernizes, found a convenient means to cut energy usage to illuminate the ever extending networks of roads. Ambitiously attempting to catch up with Europe and North America in LED lighting, earlier this year China announced the national “50 Cities, 2 Million Lamps” project, aiming to install at least 2 million modern LED street lights in 50 major cities nation-wide, illuminating roads, tunnels, bus and train stations, subways, gas stations, and indoor public areas. The project is estimated to generate business opportunities valued at 14 billion yuan for the LED street-lighting sector.

Adopting LED lighting certainly makes sense as an eco-conscious move amid concerns of the greenhouse effect; for an LED lamp burns half or less energy than an incandescent bulb of similar brightness.

With lighting generally seen to use over 50% of total electricity, China is moving as a socially-conscious economic power to gradually transform itself from a “World Factory” to a “Green Country” by focusing on LED lighting among its other green policies publicized over the past couple of years.

Great Potential

Without being the leader in the LED lighting sector, China has great potential to take that title within five years as it actively reduces carbon emissions. As living standards continue to improve, Chinese consumers may be better prepared to replace the existing 1.4 billion incandescent bulbs with more eco-friendly LED counterparts, setting the stage for a massive business opportunity. Also the Beijing government subsidized the replacement of 210 million incandescent bulbs with energy-saving ones during 2008-2009.

China, despite having great potential to become the world's largest market for LED lighting, does not have a significant local LED lighting sector, for most of such lighting consumed in the country is imported. But with potential local demand as fuel to develop the local LED lighting sector, the Beijing government aims to raise the domestic supply of such lighting to 70% in the near future.

Taiwan's LED Policy

Taiwan started its national plan to upgrade traffic and street lights last year, budgeting for city and county governments to offer subsidies to encourage replacement with LED lights within three years. The Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) said that all traffic lights island-wide will be replaced with LED ones by the end of 2011, with street lights upgraded at a faster pace.

Realizing better energy-efficiency, over 90,000 traffic lights and 4,846 street lights have been replaced with LED counterparts as of this June, helping to reduce CO2 emission by an estimated 25,000 tons annually. Taiwan's LED street lighting market is valued at US$312.5 million.

Taiwan has selected seven green industries for priority development in a bid to become a “green island.” Among the seven, the LED lighting sector has given Taiwan reason to be proud, with the island ranked as the world's No. 1 in annual LED production volume and No. 2 in production value.

The development of the LED lighting sector in Taiwan is also setting other precedents: According to the Energy Bureau, Taiwan published a set of national LED lighting standards in 2008, the first of its kind globally.

Besides cutting carbon emissions, Taiwan's plan to replace traffic and street lights with LED counterparts will also help to enhance the national image, portraying the island as one with green lighting, in contrast to its less-coveted title of world-leading cement-usage per-capita.

Structured Effort

Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and several LED companies formed the LED Street Lighting Alliance in mid-January this year, aiming to develop standardized LED lighting module and related technologies.

In March, the Taiwan Illumination Committee was formed and will apply for membership with the International Commission on Illumination or CIE in French, a body devoted to worldwide cooperation and exchange of information on all matters relating to the science and art of light and lighting, colour and vision, photobiology and image technology.

Notable Makers

Delta Electronics is among the most active LED lighting makers in Taiwan, currently turning out several LED street lights, all reportedly of high factor and energy-efficiency, with over 90 percent of the materials and parts being recyclable.

To ensure steady parts supply, Delta acquired a major stake in Edison Opto, a manufacturer of high-factor LED parts as super compact high-power LED, low/high bay module series, LED street light module and engine etc.

Leadray Energy is another LED street lighting producer with ambition to explore the Greater China market. Winning the street lighting contract for Hsinchu City, dubbed the Science City in Taiwan, Leadray Energy has played a part to turn Hsinchu into a model city of green street lighting. Able to develop LED lighting core technologies in-house, Leadray is also certified to American UL, European CE, and Taiwan CNS standards.

Seeing bright outlook in the Greater China market, the US-based WI Harper Group plans to invest US$15 million in LED lighting production in China and Taiwan in the near future. Founded in 1996, the WI Harper Group is a venture capital firm focusing on investments in Greater China, having been involved in over 90 projects mostly in emerging industries.

Grand Light is considered one of the most prominent among China-based LED lighting companies, whose green lighting has impressed visitors to the Shanghai World Expo that began this May.

Grand Light has also developed several LED street lights, samples of which have been sent to the Beijing government for approval as model green lighting for the city. Meanwhile, the company has teamed up with Beijing Electronics Holding to explore the LED street lighting market in China, where the company has divided the market into five areas and set up sales offices for each. This maker is aggressively developing business opportunities in China, believing the next three to five years to be the golden age for LED street lighting in the nation.