The Promise and Challenge of Solid-State Lighting

The Promise and Challenge of Solid-State Lighting

Bergh, Arpad, George Craford, Anil Duggal, and Roland Haitz
Physics Today 54, no. 12 (2001): 42-47.

“A vital and growing use of energy is the generation of electricity. In the US alone, producing electricity costs $60 billion a year. But the cost of electrical energy should not be measured in dollars alone—there is the environmental cost of smog and carbon dioxide pollution associated with electricity production.

About 20% of electricity is used for lighting. The most widely used sources of artificial illumination are incandescent and fluorescent lamps, but this is about to change: Solid-state lighting (SSL) devices promise to replace conventional light sources, with impressive economic and environmental savings. In the US, expenditures for lighting may be reduced by $100 billion over the period 2000–2020. By the year 2020, electricity used for lighting may be cut by 50%, sparing the atmosphere 28 million metric tons of carbon emission annually.”

— Arpad Bergh et al.