Lighting Accelerator (U4E)

Lighting is critical to enhancing quality of life. It helps students to read and write when the school day is over, it enables businesses to operate consistently throughout the day, it illuminates areas that may otherwise be unsafe, and much more. About 15 per cent of global electricity is used for lighting. As economies grow and populations expand, the demand for lighting increases. Over the next two decades, the amount of lighting is projected to rise by approximately 50 per cent relative to current usage. However, inefficient and short-lived technologies are still pervasive, such as incandescent lamps that are based on a 125 year-old technology.

There is significant opportunity to improve the energy efficiency of lighting, while providing an equal or better quality of light. This can save customers money on their electricity bills and help utilities reach more customers with their existing power plants. It is easy to replace wasteful products with widely available quality lighting products, such as LEDs that can cut power use by 80 - 90 per cent.