Study: LEDs Will Cut Global Electricity Demand in Half

A new study conducted by manufacturers Osram and Siemens says that if every lamp in the world converted to LED, it would cut the global demand for electricity by 50 percent.

Those simple little light bulbs alone could solve the world’s energy crisis, the study says.

The study says, "Artificial lighting accounts for around 19 percent of global electricity consumption — that corresponds to 2.4 percent of worldwide primary energy consumption. And 70 percent of the energy used for artificial lighting is consumed by lamps for which there are more energy-efficient alternatives. Simply replacing conventional light sources with LEDs would theoretically halve global electricity consumption for lighting. The potential savings are therefore enormous."

The study also delves into the cost and environmental concerns for manufacturing, distributing, transporting and disposing of LEDs. It also examines LEDs vs. compact fluorescent lights (CFLs). Again, in both cases, LEDs are the hands-down winner, requiring very little energy to manufacturer and not containing mercury. A life cycle assessment in the study shows that it takes 25 incandescents, 2.5 CFLs to equal the same level of efficiency as a single LED bulb.

Other conclusions from the study include:

• LED lamps are already more than five times more efficient than incandescent lamps
• LED lamps need less than 2 percent of their energy consumption for their manufacture, meaning they are over 98 percent efficient for their task: illuminating the world

The report says that this conclusion dismisses “any concern that manufacturing of LED particularly might be very energy-intensive. In contrast to the primary energy consumption of incandescent lamps of around 3,300kWh, LED lamps use less than 700kWh.”

With the technology already at our fingertips, what is the world waiting for? The study says that Europe will be banning the manufacture of inefficient fixtures for incandescents and CFLs by 2015.

The U.S. is already phasing out incandescent bulbs. Fixtures won’t be far behind. Judging from the look of some of the lighting fixtures I’ve seen in houses, many of them should have been banned for aesthetic reasons long ago.