Accelerating the Commercial Market’s Acceptance of LED Light Sources through Strategic Utility & Public Benefit Program Partnerships

Melissa L. Lucas, Consortium for Energy Efficiency, Inc.
Rachel Schmeltz, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Paul Vrabel, ICF Consulting
Edward Wisniewski, Consortium for Energy Efficiency, Inc.

Keywords

Abstract

Lighting represents a significant portion of energy consumption in the United States, and has been the focus of utility and other public benefit programs for the past two decades. Advances in various types of lighting including electronic ballasts, fluorescent lamps and colored light emitting diodes (LEDs) have allowed tremendous energy savings to be realized in both widespread and niche lighting applications. However, the rapid advancement, marketing, installation and ultimate energy savings of these technologies would not have been realized at the current levels without the support of various federal, state, and utility
public benefit programs and their interaction with industry. In the not too distant future there lies an emerging technology that has the possibility of significant energy savings–white LEDs. In addition, there are many untapped niche applications for colored LEDs. Focused efforts through government–utility–industry partnerships can continue to help overcome technological, procurement and market barriers that prohibit widespread acceptance of LEDs in certain commercial and residential lighting applications. This paper discusses a strategy for advancing LED lighting through government–utility–industry partnerships.