The Hindu Business Line : `Efficient lighting tech can help meet energy needs'

In what is dubbed as the first detailed global analysis of energy used by lighting, the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) has asserted that even though global energy demand for lighting will be 80 per cent higher by 2030, making better use of today's efficient lighting technologies and techniques can help meet growing energy needs.

The technologies are not only readily available in the market but also economically competitive during the life cycle of the product, in addition to more efficient lighting resulting in lower CO2 emissions, IEA's comprehensive study, Light's Labour Lost - Policies for Energy-efficient Lighting, pointed out.

Generally, lighting ranks among the end-uses dominating global power demand.

Worldwide, grid-based electric lighting consumes 19 per cent of the total global electricity production. Lighting requires as much electricity as is produced by all gas-fired generation and 15 per cent more than those produced by either hydro or nuclear power.

The annual cost of this service including energy, lighting equipment and labour is $360 billion, roughly one per cent of the global GDP, the report pointed out, adding that electricity accounts for some two-thirds of this.

But the electricity used by lighting is also a major source of CO2 emissions, equivalent to 70 per cent of those from the world's cars.

Mapping out the means by which lighting demand can be curbed at lower cost than continuing with the current practices, the IEA report shows that if end-users were to install only efficient lamps, ballasts and controls that will save money over the life cycle of the lighting service, global lighting electricity demand would drop substantially.

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