LED lamps to take over incandescent bulbs in 2012

To reduce energy consumption, Taiwan has drafted plans to phase out incandescent bulbs in favor os energy-saving light-emitting diode lamps in Q1 of 2009.According to the Bureau og energy under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the incandescent-extinction policy will start from government organizations, and local lighting manufacturers are forbidden to produce these bulbs starting 2010. By 2012, incandescent bubls will be completely eradicated in the island.

According to MOEA, the plan has already been slowly implemented in Australia, the European Union and California of the United States. Industry sources expect global market of LED lighting for general applications to make revenues of over $500 million, growing at an annual rate of 25 percent.

LED makers are plannning for higher volume production and strengthened product development.Leading companies in Taiwan such as Epstar Corp., Everlight Electronics Co. Ltd, Harvatek Corp. and Formosa Epitaxy Inc. are seeing opptunities in this government initiative. Increased demand is expected from LED lighting market.

 Traffic lights, architecture lighting, landscape lighting and mercury streetlights on non-main roads are the primary target replacements. It is estimated that by 2025, LED lamps will completely replace incandescent bubls, saving about 3.78 billion kW-hr of electricity per year. To date, the MOEA has yet to replace 430,000 non-LED traffic lights and 1.35 million non-LED streetlights.

Last year's statistics showed that some 20 millon incandescent lamps were sold in Taiwan and another 20 million lamps will be sold by end-2007. These lamps consume about 1.04 billion kW-hr of electricity per year in Taiwan.