New DOE Report Estimates LED Savings in Common Lighting Applications

Craig DiLouie August 5, 2015

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has released its latest report in a series analyzing markets where LEDs compete with traditional lighting sources.

The new report, Adoption of Light-Emitting Diodes in Common Lighting Applications, estimates penetration into the installed lighting base in 2014 in 10 popular lighting applications. DOE also estimates 2014 energy savings as well as potential savings if all of these applications had switched completely to the best-available LED products.

Key findings:

• Annual source energy savings from LEDs in 2014 were approximately 143 tBtu (equivalent to a cost savings of about $1.4 billion).
• Annual source energy savings would have been 4,896 tBtu (saving $49 billion) if all applications had switched “overnight” to the best-available LEDs.
• While LED installations increased in all applications between 2012 and 2014, more than quadrupling to 215 million units overall, market penetration remains modest, climbing to 3% overall, versus less than 1% in 2012.
• Small directional LEDs remain the market-share leader, with market share increasing from 10% in 2012 to 22% in 2014. Growth is expected to slow in coming years.
• LEDs enjoyed a 10% share of outdoor applications in 2014, versus just 2.8% of indoor applications, which represent a significantly larger market in terms of units.
• LED cumulative installations were predominantly in indoor (88%) versus outdoor (8%) and other (4%) applications, with total installations led by A-type lamps (36% of units installed) and directional lamps and luminaires (31% of units installed).
• Thanks to recent performance gains, LED products have begun to compete successfully against lower-priced incumbents in important commercial and industrial applications, attaining a 1.3% share in linear fixtures and a 2.2% share in low-bay/high-bay applications – the two applications with the greatest potential for future energy savings from SSL.

Click here to download the report.