On September 5, we had an article titled The Imminent Revolution in Lighting, and Why it is More Important Than You Think, which described the massive change the economics of lighting will experience in the next few years.
I would like to also add this article from MIT Technology Review, about advances in silicon-based white-light LEDs. The article explains how the low cost of silicon, combined with the massive infrastructure already in place to process silicon into electronic and solar-cell products, provides a catalyst for this innovation to reach mass-market adoption sooner than others. These LEDs could potentially use just one tenth the electricity of traditional incandescent bulbs, yet last 50 times longer.
The point that many miss, however, is not whether this technology supplants compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs), or whether another form of LED technology wins out. The point is that there is rapid innovation in many unrelated technologies trying to address the same goal. This much competition and participation inevitably leads to high-impact innovations that benefit society immensely.
As stated before, the energy problem will be killed by a thousand cuts, of which this is one.
On the last post on this topic I commented that I went out and bought CFLs for my home. The first month my electric bill went from $73 in September of last year to $53 of September of this year. I thought it might have been because I used the AC more last year (I used last year as an estimate because my energy usage regarding air conditioning and heating is probably the same).
In the month of October I don't use A/C or heat. Last year my bill was $59.30. This year it is $43.38. I haven't had a bill this low in years. Looks like the CFLs have paid for themselves already.
Posted by: CT | November 01, 2006 at 10:22 AM