Lighting Solutions Group: Grand Challenge

Illumination and information displays account for 22% of domestic energy consumption.  Incandescent lighting is only 4% efficient, at best, in converting electricity to light.  Fluorescent lighting is better, but still only 25% energy-efficient. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) already top 50% efficiency, and have the potential to reach 80%.

At UC Santa Barbara, the Institute for Energy Efficiency has developed a 150 lumen/watt LED white light source—that’s the efficiency level considered the threshold for commercialization.  When scaled up to provide as much light as a 60W incandescent bulb, and then commercialized to replace incandescent bulbs, the United States alone could realize $115 billion cumulative savings by 2025. This would also eliminate the need for 133 new power stations, save 258 million metric tons of carbon, and save 273 trillion watt-hours per year in energy.  The Institute's challenge is to double this efficiency with production methods that scale to allow costs similar to incandescent light bulbs.