Molybdenum News Center

Field evaluations of LED lighting show benefits beyond reduced energy usage

LED research projects clearly demonstrate that solid-state lighting (SSL) has come a long way in just a few short years. Evaluations have been conducted by our organization in collaboration with multi-stakeholder groups including electric utilities, municipalities, on-farm researchers, and LED manufacturers. Working both to help specifiers choose optimum energy-efficient lighting systems and to accelerate SSL adoption is not easy, however, and consumers, municipalities, and utilities can have very different purchase motivations.

Working with a diverse group of LED manufacturers often provides an early peek at exciting new product features or the opportunity to test prototypes before they enter the commercial marketplace.

However, the excitement of SSL can often be tempered by utility clients, who are naturally averse to risk. The business model of a utility is built on ensuring reliability while generating predictable earnings for shareholders with little, if any, room for mistakes.

However, a few failures — going back to the drawing board — is typical in LED product refinement and is a natural part of getting things right. The real question is: "Can rapid innovation co-exist within a utility environment?" At times, the answer seems like combining oil and water – they just don't mix.

The good news is that more utility-funded LED field demonstrations and other market-based field evaluations are enabling us to characterize the industry and design new programs around energy efficiency. Also, smart lighting is well-positioned to align with the smart grid concept. Such initiatives create more motivation for utilities to go forward, albeit with cautious optimism.

The pace of change

Get ready: lighting innovation is going to cause huge changes. However, the pace of change will depend on critical decisions made by businesses, policy makers, leaders, and investors over the next 3–5 years.

Also, field results are providing insights into the energy-related and non-energy-related benefits of LEDs that go well beyond kilowatt-hour savings. But are these enough to motivate municipalities, and utility customers? Our research reveals that barriers to SSL adoption beyond cost still exist. These must be addressed to truly accelerate wide-scale market adoption by consumers and the utilities, whose grids must respond accordingly.

It's generally understood that we are experiencing a major market-transformation event in lighting, which means that more services are required. Lighting companies that sell just light bulbs will either disappear or reinvent themselves to provide the market with services to support the advancement of SSL and adaptive controls. Examples of services are illustrated in Table 1 for market-ready LED niche applications. (Excerpt from LEDs Magazine)


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