I attended a webinar about LED lighting last week and learned some interesting facts about what the future holds for this incredibly efficient light source.
Already, LED lighting has far surpassed incandescent, halogen, linear fluorescent, and high pressure sodium lighting as far as efficacy (a measure of efficiency for a light source, expressed as light output, or lumens, per watt of electricity used).
The expectation is that LEDs will continue to dramatically increase in efficiency and to simultaneously dramatically decrease in cost. Lighting designer Joseph A. Rey-Barreau led the webinar, and he noted that most other lighting technologies are on the edge of their potential as far as efficacy. However, there seems to be no limit to LEDs on this front.
Another interesting gem from the webinar came from a few charts analyzing electricity consumption in the United States. Rey-Barreau noted that if the U.S. had maintained the status quo with previous light sources, electricity consumption would double in the next ten years.
However, thanks to LED lighting, we are expected to actually drastically reduce electricity consumption in the next ten years. LED lighting will likely reduce lighting energy use in the United States by one-fourth by 2030!