the best returns on investment for companies looking to reduce their energy use

EECA has found switching to energy efficient lighting provides one of the best returns on investment for companies looking to reduce their energy use.

“Lighting accounts for about a fifth of the electricity used in commercial buildings so there’s a lot of potential for savings for both individual companies and the country as a whole” says Bill Brander, EECA’s Lighting Programme Manager. “For example, reducing electricity use by just 20% through use of more efficient lighting and controls has the potential to save 1.4 petajoules or over $40 million of energy at a national level.”

Apart from that, the company is also developing the 2nd generation (or "type 2") panel which will up the efficiency to 60 lm/W and the lifetime to 15,000 hours. It will keep the same size, but the color will be 3,500K. It plans to start mass production of type 2 panels in 2Q 2012.

In the meanwhile, LG Chem published their LED lighting roadmap. According to its roadmap, the company schedules to provide larger panels (150x150 mm) which will feature 80 lm/W and 20,000 lifetime hours (LT70) by 2013. And they will also produce transparent panels by then. By 2015 the company will offer flexible panels as well, and their most efficient panel will feature over 135 lm/W and 40,000 lifetime (LT70) at 200x200 mm.