LED Market Still Has Incredible Energy Saving Potential

LEDs as an industry have been booming for a number of years which has led many to ask…have they reached their peak? Is there any more energy and money to be saved by them at this point? Or has the crescendo of LED’s success in many lighting applications started to fade? These questions were taken up and answered recently when the Department of Energy (DOE) published their report on the subject entitled, Adoption of Light Emitting Diodes in Common Lighting Applications.

The results were staggering.

Simply put, LEDs are nowhere near done saving us energy and money. The DOE report reveals many valuable insights into the promising pathways for LED and other SSL technology development. The report also gives estimates of the energy saved in 2014 based on the degree of LED usage in 10 major lighting applications. It is estimated that the annual source energy savings from LEDs in 2014 fell around 143 tBtu. This alone equaled savings of around $1.4 billion dollars.

Further extrapolations from the DOE report suggests that if all applications had switched overnight to the best-available LEDs, savings would have approached around 4,896 tBtus. This would have resulted in savings of close to $49 billion dollars.

Additional revelations about the growth of the LED market also became apparent. For example, from 2012 to 2014 LED installations more than quadrupled to 215 million units overall. Even with this incredible increase the market penetration only rose to 3% leaving 97% of the market untapped. Small directional LEDs are the most popular application for LEDs currently, and LEDs are also more favored for outdoor applications than indoor. Plus due to improvements made in LED performance and price, they have been able to begin to compete successfully against lower-priced non LED options in both commercial and industrial applications.

For many LED manufacturers and companies seeking to transition to LEDs completely, being able to assess the quality of the LEDs being produced and used will be a necessity. Konica Minolta has a number of instruments able to provide highly accurate LED measurement and assessment data like the CL-200A Chroma Meter. Speak to one of our customer service representatives to learn more today!