Low-cost LEDs could make major reduction in UK’s electricity consumption
A breakthrough in LED (light-emitting diode) technology could reduce the proportion of electricity used for lights in the UK from 20% to 5% if it were used in every home and office — a reduction in overall electricity use of about 15% . Eight power stations could be closed or not replaced if lamps using this technology were used in every home and office. A new way of making gallium nitride (GaN), which emits a brilliant light using very little electricity, could produce LEDs for a tenth of current prices.
GaN has been grown in laboratories on expensive sapphire wafers since the 1990s. It can now be grown on silicon wafers, so cheap mass-produced LEDs could become widely available for lighting homes and offices in the next five years.
A GaN LED can burn for 100 000 h or so, so it only needs replacing, on average, after 60 years. These LEDs do not contain mercury, so disposal is less damaging to the environment. They also turn on instantly and are dimmable.
This new approach has been developed by the centre for gallium nitride at Cambridge University, with funding from the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
Prof. Colin Humphreys, lead scientist on the project, said, ‘This could very well be the holy grail in terms of providing our lighting needs for the future. We are very close to achieving highly efficient low-cost white LEDs that can take the place of both traditional and currently available low-energy light bulbs. That is good news for the environment.’
