LED The Future of Lighting Technology

Submitted by lalit on December 22, 2008 - 9:05am.

Two professors E. Fred Schubert and Jong Kyu Kim at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have published a paper about the revolution LED will bring to lighting technology. According to the paper, a new generation of lighting devices based on LED (light-emitting diodes) will replace bulb in coming years. This change in lighting technology will result in following benefits over a period of 10 years:

  • Energy savings of 1.9 x 1020 joules
  • Electrical energy consumption would be reduced by terawatt hours
  • Financial savings of $1.83 trillion
  • Carbon dioxide emissions would be reduced by 10.68 gigatons
  • Crude oil consumption would be reduced by 962 million barrels
  • The number of required global power plants would be reduced by 280

The two professors believe that advances in photonics will bring unimaginable technological advances. The LEDs based smart lighting will not only be greener, but it will also be used for rapid biological cell identification, interactive roadways, boosting plant growth, and better supporting human circadian rhythms to reduce an individual’s dependency on sleep-inducing drugs or reduce the risk of certain types of cancer.
[Via Science Daily]