The way the world is lit up could be revolutionized by a new European-wide research project being led by the University of Dundee.
The 11.8 million Euros NEWLED project aims to develop a new generation of white light-emitting LED lights, which would be much more efficient than existing light bulbs.
It is estimated that efficient white-light LEDs, if successfully developed and widely implemented, could have a massive effect on reducing global energy consumption and C02 emissions.
"Common lightbulbs have a pretty low efficiency rating and even the best current white LEDs in use only have an overall efficiency of around 25%," said Professor Edik Rafailov, NEWLED project leader based in the School of Engineering, Physics and Mathematics at Dundee. "What we are aiming to develop is a significantly more efficient white LED, which would be around 50-60% efficient. If we can do that and it becomes widely adopted, then the effects on energy consumption would be enormous. It would also produce lighting over which much more control could be exercised in brightness and tone."
NEWLED brings together academic and industrial partners and is funded through the European Union’s FP7 program.
The effort to produce highly efficient white LEDs will see the project examine every stage of the LED fabrication process, from developing new knowledge on the control of semiconductor properties on a near-atomistic level to light mixing and heat management.
By examining the entire process, NEWLED aims to ensure that the new LEDs will be well adjusted to avoid compromising the achievements of the overall process and to ensure significant system and operating cost reduction.
Great to read about the NEWLED project. LED will indeed revolutionize light systems. I look forward to see how the manufacturers of lamps pick up this opportunity and take the advantage of developing completely new and innovative designs! Henrik Jakobsen, professor IMST, Horten, Norway
perhaps Europe should seek cooperation with Rensselaer university and cooperate with Doctoral student Ming Ma.he already developped a process that achieve this goal
LEDs already provide a great advantage in reducing the carbon footprint of lighting. They now occupy half the sockets in my house and are not only more energy efficient but provide better quality light than what went before. Example: front porch (2 lamps) 60 W incandescent -> 9W fluorescent (performs poorly when needed most often in cold weather) -> 3W LED (performs better in low temperatures). Example: dining room (5 lamps) 25W incandescent -> 5W CFL -> 2.7W LED. Example: TV room (2 lamps) 100W incandescent -> 13W CFL –> 9W LED. After that, everything is gravy: I recently purchased some 7W Phillips bulbs for $8.50 in two-packs which outperform the older 9W lamps. Bring it on but don’t make out like the show hasn’t already started. The light quality is exceptional and reading lamps are now touch safe. Another interesting attribute is that many LED lamps exhibit less flicker than incandescent lamps.
Another stat to keep in mind is that approximately 1/3 of house fires are started by incandescent bulbs partly because of a plethora of 75W sockets with 100W lamps installed.
Another advantage of LED bulbs – they don’t attract insects nearly as much as other lamps.