Shipments of LED street lights to reach 17 million by 2020?
Pike Research predicts that shipment rates for LED-based street lighting will go above and beyond 17 million by 2020.
The market for street lighting is transforming. We no longer have to rely on traditional lighting methods -- instead, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are rising in popularity due to intelligent management and energy saving options.
Research released earlier this year by the Climate Group suggested that when lighting urban areas, LEDs with a lifespan range of 50,000 – 100,000 hours provided the best return on investment, and rates of failure were far lower than traditional lighting -- two of many reasons that cities are beginning to turn to this technology.
According to a new report released by Pike Research -- a part of Navigant's Energy Practice -- due to this gradual change in the market, unit shipments of LED lamps tailored for street lights will rise from less than 3 million in 2012 to over 17 million in 2020.
"LED lamps allow for better dimming control than standard street lights, and their electronics allow for easy integration of control nodes," says senior research analyst Eric Woods.
"Rising sales of LED lamps will therefore drive up the adoption of smart street lighting systems, which promise to bring new levels of control and efficiency to the illumination of our cities, communities, highways, and public spaces."
At the moment, very few LED lighting projects have been established past a pilot phase. Such smart systems do tend to cost more in the short-term to install -- up to four times more in some cases -- which keep such schemes out of the reach for many councils. However, when we consider the long-term benefits, low failure rate and reduction in manpower required to replace or fix malfunctioning high-pressure sodium counterparts, there are further considerations than energy savings to install such systems.
Image credit: Flickr
Related:
- LED street lights: How much energy is actually saved?
- The Morning Briefing: LED lighting
- Controlling LED lights with your smartphone
- Ikea Goes 100% LED
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com