Spotlight: Solid State Lighting

“In the next few decades, general illumination technology will undergo a remarkable transformation through improvements in solid-state lighting.  No other single lighting technology offers as much potential to conserve electricity, and at the same time, enhance the quality of our building environments.”

- U.S. Department of Energy, Illuminating Ideas: Innovations in Solid-State Lighting, 2005

Silicon carbide is a critical substrate for the LEDs which form the basis of solid-state lighting devices.  Compared to conventional lighting technologies, LEDs consume 90% less energy, operate 100 times longer, can deliver virtually any color light, are significantly more durable, and do not produce dangerous environmental byproducts such as lead or mercury.

The potential energy savings are enormous.  According to the DOE, lighting in the U.S. now uses more than 8 quadrillion BTUs annually. That's more than 20 percent of all electricity consumed and more than 8 percent of total national energy consumption

Based on DOE estimates, solid-state lighting is expected to displace general illumination light sources such as incandescent and fluorescent lamps by 2025, decreasing energy consumption for lighting by 29 percent and saving 3.5 quadrillion BTUs.  For the consumer, that means a cumulative savings on electric bills of more than $125 billion from 2005 to 2025. And given that the U.S. consumes about a quarter of the world’s energy, electricity savings globally could be in the hundreds of billions.  

The DOE announced dramatic progress in solid state lighting technology in their 2005 report, Illuminating Ideas.  The research to complete commercialization of LEDs “is underway, driving toward development of efficient, full spectrum, white-light SSL sources that will replace low-efficiency incandescent and fluorescent lamps used for general illumination.”

While the market fully develops, silicon carbide-based LEDs are already making inroads in specialized applications, including architectural lighting, appliance lighting, and reading lamps.